Towards Commercializing Vanadium Dioxide Films: Investigation of the Impact of Different Interface on the Deterioration Process for Largely Extended Service Life

TL;DR

This study enhances the long-term stability of Vanadium Dioxide films by using a novel HfO2 encapsulation, significantly extending their service life in humid conditions, crucial for commercial smart window applications.

Contribution

Introduces a new HfO2 encapsulation structure with optimized thickness to suppress degradation of VO2 films, enabling stable performance over 16 years in humid environments.

Findings

VO2 films retain phase transition performance over 100 days in high humidity.

HfO2 encapsulation effectively suppresses degradation of VO2.

Proposed structure extends practical service life to about 16 years.

Abstract

Long term stability is the most pressing issue that impedes commercialization of Vanadium Dioxide (VO2) based functional films, which show a gradual loss of relative phase transition performance, especially in humid conditions when serving as smart windows. Here, we investigated the impact of different interface on the deterioration process of VO2 films and proposed a novel encapsulation structure for largely extended service life. Hydrophobic and stable hafnium dioxide (HfO2) layers have been incorporated with VO2 films for encapsulated surfaces and cross sections. With modified thickness and structure of HfO2 layers, the degradation process of VO2 can be effectively suppressed. The proposed films can retain stable phase transition performances under high relative humidity (90%) and temperature (60 Celsius) over 100 days, which is equal to about 16 years in the real environment. Improving the stability of VO2 materials is a necessary step towards commercializing production of high performance films for long term use.