Cloud Gel Nearing Market Entry

Inventor Day Chahroudi of Suntek was one of the key developers of low-emissivity (low-e) coatings for window glazings in the 1970s. Since 1980 he has focused much of his creative energy on a radically new energy-control glazing system: Cloud Gel™. Cloud Gel is normally clear with high solar transmittance, but when warmed up or exposed to bright illumination it turns translucent white and becomes 90% reflective. Long discussed and eagerly awaited, Cloud Gel may finally be coming onto the market—at least on a limited basis—in 1995.

Here’s how Cloud Gel works: The gel is a mixture of a specialized polymer and water. At lower temperatures, water forms a coating around each polymer strand, keeping the polymers separate and in solution. As the gel heats up, the polymer strands become excited and “shake off” their water coatings. When this happens, the polymers clump together and reflect light—the gel turns white. As the material cools down again, the process reverses and the Cloud Gel turns clear.