Atmospheric pressure chemical vapour deposition of thermochromic tungsten doped vanadium dioxide thin films for use in architectural glazing

Atmospheric pressure chemical vapour deposition of VCl4, WCl6 and water at 550 °C lead to the production of high quality tungsten doped vanadium dioxide thin films. Careful control of the gas phase precursors allowed for tungsten doping up to 8 at.%. The transition temperature of the thermochromic switch was tunable in the range 55 °C to − 23 °C. The films were analysed using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Their optical properties were examined using variable-temperature transmission and reflectance spectroscopy. It was found that incorporation of tungsten into the films led to an improvement in the colour from yellow/brown to green/blue depending on the level of tungsten incorporation. The films were optimized for optical transmission, thermochromic switching temperature, magnitude of the switching behaviour and colour to produce films that are suitable for use as an energy saving environmental glass product.