BMW is looking at the power of the sun to help the market warm its windows during winter.
The automotive giant is exploring a sunlight-harvesting material that has the ability to release heat. BMW appears to be impressed with the material that they are looking at using it to de-ice car windshields.
The company has chosen to sponsor a team located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The team has developed a material which absorbs solar energy. The material comes in the form of a translucent polymer film and has the ability to store the energy for days before being released on demand. The stored energy can only be released once the material changes its chemical state, most likely with a small jolt of electricity.
The team is comprised of Jeffrey Grossman, MIT Professor, postdoctorate David Zhitomirsky and one graduate student named Eugene Cho. The reported that:
Photon energy is stored within the chemical conformations of molecules and is retrieved by a triggered release in the form of heat. Until now, such solar thermal fuels (STFs) have been largely unavailable in the solid-state, which would enable them to be utilized for a multitude of applications.
BMW is quite invested in this material and are very impressed with the material's ability to release heat when needed.
Grossman experimented with the material, indicating tests that could get enough heat to drop ice off a windshield.
What is BMW planning to do with this material? The material can be encased between two glass layers and it can enable the automaker the means to market a car with sustainable advantages. Using the car's energy to de-ice the windshields during winter is so sustainable that Grossman claims that it can reduce 30% car energy use devoted to heating and de-icing vehicles.
This finding is now published in the Journal of Advanced Energy Material, reports indicated.
