Applications of Electrochromism

The main application areas for electrochromic systems are in electrically switchable rear-view car mirrors for anti-dazzle, in glazing units for temperature and light control and in visnal displays. The main advantage offered by electrochromic systems in the first two of these applications is the fact that the cells can be made very large, i.e. one cell can comprise a whole glazing unit. 

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FIGURE 8.7 Chromatic polymers and applications of electrochromic devices based on electrothermal chromatic... 

A notable application of electrochromic cells is in car mirrors, which can be electrically dimmed so as to cut down dazzling reflections from bright lights. These do not use LT but instead rely upon the decomposition of atmospheric water vapour to... 

Figure 20.6 Principles of four different applications of electrochromic devices. Arrows indicate incoming and outgoing electromagnetic radiation the thickness of the arrows signifies radiation intensity. Reprinted from C. G. Granqvist, Electrochromic devices, J. Eur. Ceram. Soc. 25, 2907 (2005), Copyright 2005, with permission from...

Chemical species that can be electrochemically switched between different colours are said to be electrochromic. Electrochromism results from the generation of different visible-region electronic absorption bands on switching between redox states. The colour change is commonly between a transparent ( bleached ) state and a coloured state, or between two coloured states. In cases where more than two redox states are electrochemically available, the electrochromic material may exhibit several colours and be termed polyelectrochromic. Likely applications of electrochromic materials include their use in controllable light-reflective or... 

There are various ways in which CMEs can benefit analytical applications. These include acceleration of electron-transfer reactions, preferential accumulation, or selective membrane permeation. Such steps can impart higher selectivity, sensitivity, or stability to electrochemical devices. These analytical applications and improvements have been extensively reviewed (35-37). Many other important applications, including electrochromic display devices, controlled release of drugs, electrosynthesis, and corrosion protection, should also benefit from the rational design of electrode surfaces. 

A large number of materials show electrochromic properties however, only a few of them are interesting for practical applications since for this purpose, additional requirements must be fulfilled (1) as discussed above, for most applications the materials need to have a colorless (bleached) state (2) the electrochromic transformations should occur without parasitic reactions, such as gas evolution or material degradation (3) to be considered practical, the electrochromic materials should survive at least 10 coloring-bleaching cycles (4) the rate of electrochromic transformation needs to be sufficiently fast (1 s for most applications) and (5) due to problems with leaking and diffusion in iiquids, it is preferabie to have insoiubie soiid efec-trochromic materiais. 

Bohnke, O., Applications of proton condnctors in electrochromic devices, in Proton Conductors Solids, Membranes and Gels—Materials and Devices, P. Colomban, Ed., Cambridge University Press, New York, 1992. 

Electrochromic dyes, as the name implies, are dyes which undergo a colour change as a result of the application of electrical energy. These... 

The aim of this Chapter is to review a method by which fluorescence properties of organic dyes can, in general, be predicted and understood at a microscopic (nm scale) by interfacing quantum methods with classical molecular dynamics (MD) methods. Some review of our extensive applications [1] of this method to the widely exploited intrinsic fluorescence probe in proteins, the amino acid tryptophan (Trp) will be followed by a discussion of electrochromic membrane voltagesensing dyes. 

It is important, however, to realize that whilst many types of chemical species exhibit electro-chromism, only those with favorable electrochromic performance parameters1 are potentially useful in commercial applications. Thus, most applications require electrochromic materials with a high contrast ratio, coloration efficiency, cycle life, and write-erase efficiency.1 Some performance parameters are application dependent displays need low response times, whereas smart windows can tolerate response times of up to several minutes. 

Materials such as polypyrrole are exciting in terms of their future technological impact, not just because of the obvious applications of such a simple, cheap electrochromic but because it may be possible to develop them sufficiently to replace the more expensive, and often toxic, metallic conductors commonly employed in the electronics industry. This may not be such a distant dream since it has been calculated that the intrinsic conductivity of these materials, i.e. without the defects that are currently defeating attempts to increase their conductivity of c, < lOOOfl 1 cm", may be many times that of copper. 

In addition, the integration of modem optical technology and electrochemical techniques for sensing applications appears to be a powerful new approach. A new type of optoelectrochemical sensor for chlorine, based on an electrochromic thin-film sensing layer placed on top of a planar waveguide, has demonstrated the applicability of this combined approach. 

As in the case of [3]radialenes, the individual redox stages of [4]radialenes may have different colors. Based on these electrochromic properties, the application of 77 as a component in liquid crystal display devices was patented85. 

Jiangtao Di, Zhigang Zhao, and Qingwen Li 17 Electrochromic and photovoltaic applications of nanocarbon hybrids... 

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