Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

Cool urban surfaces reduce urban heat islands, save cooling energy in air conditioned buildings, improve indoor and outdoors ambient air quality and comfort, and more importantly directly cool the globe and combat global warming. Measurements of solar reflectance, solar absorptance, solar transmittance, and thermal emittance are needed to design advanced buildings and construction materials. For design of advanced windows in air conditioned buildings, it is important to select materials that allow incoming visual light but reject the near infrared light. Similarly, building envelope materials (roof and walls) with high solar reflectance and high thermal emittance stay cool during hot summer days resulting in lower air conditioning demand. Building materials with advanced thermochromic materials have the benefit of reflecting sunlight in summer and absorbing it in winter. The proposed instrument, a UV/VIS/NIR spectrometer to measure the spectral properties of construction materials over the wavelength of 250-2500 nm (at 5 nm interval), is direct linked to my research program proposed for funding under the Discovery program. The main focus of the research program is to develop novel materials with optimal solar and thermal spectral properties and the UV/VIS/NIR spectrometer will be one of the principal instrumentation in the new "Material Optical Properties Laboratory" for research on spectral properties of construction materials at Concordia University. It is expected that the laboratory will be established this year and grow over the next few years to include not only the UV/VIS/NIR spectrometer but also a FTIR spectrometer to measure the optical properties of the materials in the range of 3000 to 40000 nm, a reflectometer to measure the overall solar reflectance, an emissometer to measure the thermal emissivity of construction materials, and several pyranometers for measuring the solar reflectance of surfaces in the field. The requested UV/VIS/NIR spectrometer is the most important piece of equipment to start up the research activities and allow for a successful establishment of a new research field in Canada.