Polymer-air multilayer (PAM) was developed to decrease the heat loss through window glass panes. A PAM consists of a few polymer films separated from each other by air gaps. Thanks to the excellent optical properties of the polymer films, the visual transmittance of PAM is higher than 70%, and the haze is less than 2%. PAM not only has mechanisms to reduce the conductive and convective heat transfer, but also can obstruct the radiative heat transfer. With a 4~6 mm thick PAM coating, the U-factor of a glass pane can be lowered from above 1 Btu/{{h}{ft}^2{{\deg}F}} to 0.5~0.6 Btu/{{h}{ft}^2{{\deg}F}} .PAM is resilient and robust, relevant to the window retrofitting applications.
@article{arxiv.2005.14395,
title = {Thermal Insulating Polymer-Air Multilayer for Window Energy Efficiency},
author = {Rui Kou and Ying Zhong and Qingyang Wang and Jeongmin Kim and Renkun Chen and Yu Qiao},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2005.14395},
year = {2020}
}