Optimized Atmospheric-Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition Thermochromic VO2 Thin Films for Intelligent Window Applications

• Published in: ACS omega Vol. 2; no. 3; pp. 1040 - 1046
• Main Authors: Malarde, Delphine, Powell, Michael J, Quesada-Cabrera, Raul, Wilson, Rachel L, Carmalt, Claire J, Sankar, Gopinathan, Parkin, Ivan P, Palgrave, Robert G
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Chemical Society 31-03-2017
• ISSN: 2470-1343; 2470-1343
• DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.7b00042

Monoclinic vanadium­(IV) oxide (VO2) has been widely studied for energy-efficient glazing applications because of its thermochromic properties, displaying a large change in transmission of near-IR wavelengths between the hot and cold states. The optimization of the reaction between VCl4 and ethyl acetate via atmospheric-pressure chemical vapor deposition (APCVD) was shown to produce thin films of monoclinic VO2 with excellent thermochromic properties (ΔT sol = 12%). The tailoring of the thermochromic and visible light transmission was shown to be possible by altering the density and morphology of the deposited films. The films were characterized by X-ray diffraction, atomic-force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, ellipsometry, and UV–vis spectrometry. This article provides useful design rules for the synthesis of high-quality VO2 thin films by APCVD.