Self-Healing Films for Vacuum Insulation Panels (Final Report)

Tomonori Saito, Diana E. Hun, Natasha Ghezawi, Catalin Gainaru, Mike Merwin, Yudhisthira Sahoo, Christopher Kowalczyk, Amanda Young

Research output: Book/ReportCommissioned report

Abstract

Vacuum insulation panels (VIPs) have an extremely high thermal resistance of around R35/inch, which makes them ideal for building envelope retrofits and prefabricated construction with space constraints. However, the barrier film that maintains the vacuum and thermal performance of the panel can be easily damaged during transportation, installation, and service life. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has developed a self-healable barrier film for VIPs that instantly self-heals damages caused by punctures. The multi-layer barrier film is manufactured using roll-to-roll (R2R) methods. The self-healing barrier film prevents loss of vacuum in VIPs and maintains the exceptional thermal insulation performance. Enhanced durability of VIP by self-healable barrier film and establishing the commercialization path will increase the use of VIPs, thus reducing overall energy usage of buildings. This project has fine-tuned the slurry chemistry of the self-healing components and transitioned the R2R manufacturing trials from mid-scale lab equipment to large-scale industrial equipment for de-risking the technology for commercialization with our TCF CRADA partner, FLEXcon.
Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationUnited States
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2024

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