High Performance Durable Vanadium Dioxide Spectral Selective Modulation Smart Windows

ABSTRACT Buildings consume 40% of global energy consumption, and windows are the least energy‐efficient component. Vanadium dioxide nanoparticles (VO 2 NPs)‐based spectral selective modulation smart windows (SSMSWs) represent a recent pivotal technology advancement for achieving building energy conservation and emission reduction. However, their practical application is hindered by the intrinsic instability of VO 2 NPs and poor spectral modulation performance, including low luminous transmittance ( T lum ), limited solar modulation efficiency (Δ T sol ), and modest mid‐infrared emission modulation (Δ ε ). Herein, we propose systematic microstructure engineering to address these challenges. The enhanced crystallinity and core–shell protection improve the durability of VO 2 NPs‐based SSMSWs by an order of magnitude while simultaneously boosting their spectral selective modulation. The resulting SSMSWs exhibit comprehensively enhanced T lum of 28.5%, Δ T sol of 10.5%, Δ ε of 0.50, surpassing the state‐of‐the‐art. Building energy simulations across five major climate zones demonstrate average annual energy savings of 8.2% and 2.6% compared to conventional and commercial low‐E glass, respectively.