Materials, processes, and issues in low-emissivity and solar control coatings

Research at DOE and other laboratories can help addressing the durability, performance, and cost issues associated with the energy-saving coatings on glass used in windows of residential and commercial buildings. A brief review is presented on the status of energy-savings coatings, including material systems and processes to manufacture them. Issues such as durability, enhanced performance, dynamic coatings, and multifunctional coatings are considered. Industry and the Department of Energy have overlapping areas of interest, and therefore laboratories should and can have a role in energy-savings research and development of industrial relevance. The report includes specific recent results obtained at Berkeley Lab. It is argued that the properties of ultrathin silver films are determined both by the kinetics of the deposition process and the post-deposition thermodynamics of the material system.