A research by Public University of Navarra has designed new materials composed of photonic crystal that can be used to filter radiation, the main purpose is to develop a coating dielectric spheres that would prevent the outside heat entering in the summer and the indoor heat from escaping in winter. Photonic crystal is a material with a structure that is repeated in the space and this structure allows radiation to be filtered in a particular way.

The research is based on the use of spheres to create a photonic crystal coating with a filtering effect: the result is very interesting because, despite the size, the behaviour of the structure is always the same.

Precisely for this reason, the other part of research consists in create a monolayer of spheres that would filter visible and infrared radiation; to cut the costs the researchers have used different types of materials, including titanium dioxide, a material that has high dieletric permittivity. The research’s plan is to realize a colourless monolayer with total visibility, and a filtering effect. The already existing materials are composed of various layers, as in sun glasses for example. With a monolayer material, the quantity of used material is less than the use of a traditional material, but the effect is the same.

The results obtained aren’t completely successful, but the study and the tests have opened the door to the future development of a suitable technique to obtain materials of this type.

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