Electrochromic Chemicals

A wide range of both inorganic and organic chemicals exhibit electrochromism and it is only possible to cover those of the greatest importance in this text. Readers requiring greater details should refer to specialised texts. °  

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For Further Reading R. E. Gleason, How far will circuits shrink Science Spectra, vol. 20, 2000, pp. 32—40. B. Halford, Better electrochromics, Chemical and Engineering News, November 30, 2005, http //pubs.acs.org/cen/news/83/i49/8349 electrochromics.html. P. Yam, Plastics get wired, Scientific American, July 1995, pp. 83-89. Information (advanced) on the Nobel Prize 2000, at http //nobelprize.org/nobel prizes/chem-istry/laureates/2000/adv.html... 

Progress in the development of solid electrolytes is also being achieved from advances in several other fields of technology such as fuel and electrolysis cells, thermoelectric converters, electrochromic devices, and sensors for many chemical and physical quantities. 

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. 

Figure 7.6 Mirrors (a) an ordinary car driver s mirror reflects the lights of a following car, which can dazzle the driver (b) in an electrochromic mirror, a layer of optically absorbing chemical is electro-generated in front of the reflector layer, thereby decreasing the scope for dazzle. The width of the arrows indicates the relative light intensity...

Yao, Z., et al., Aligned coaxial tungsten oxide-carbon nanotube sheet a flexible and gradient electrochromic film. Chemical Communications, 2012. 48(66) p. 8252-8254. 

Redox indicator A chemical that changes colour (is electrochromic ) when undergoing redox change since the change occurs at a specific potential, the substance is able to function as an indicator. 

Interest has developed in electrochromic light transmission modulators, which are called smart windows , for control of temperature and lighting in buildings and automobiles. A cross section of an electrochromic light transmission modulator is shown in Fig. 11.31 (Rauh and Cogan, 1988). The two electrochromic elements of the structure are designated ECl and EC2, and are sandwiched between two thin film, optically transparent, electrodes of ITO and separated by an electrolyte. The ECl layer should colour when a negative potential is applied and the EC2 layer should either colour under positive potentials or remain in a transparent state. This is indicated by the chemical reactions ... 

The LbL strategy to chemically modify electrodes with redox polyelectrolyte films has become an important tool for the fabrication of devices and electrodes with important future applications in biosensors, electrochromic devices, electrocatalysts, corrosion-resistant coatings, and so on. 

Electrochromic devices work in the opposite sense to an electrochemical cell instead of harnessing the chemical reaction between the electrodes to give an electric current, an electric current is applied to the cell, causing the movement of ions through the electrolyte and creating a coloured compound in one of the electrodes. When an electric current is applied to the following device (Figure 5.23) ... 

A general schematic for a smart window is shown in Figure 13.10. This device is, quite literally, two chemically modified electrodes sandwiched together. In this case, the films coating the electrode surfaces are electrochromic materials. A polymer electrolyte, analogous to that used in the fuel cell discussed earlier, is sandwiched between these two electrochromic material-coated electrodes. In a recent example of this concept by Habib and Maheswari of General Motors Research Laboratories [94], the cathodic electrochromic material was a tungsten oxide and the cathodic electrochromic material was the material Prussian blue, discussed in Section II of this chapter. It seems likely that electrochromic cells will soon find their way into the commercial marketplace. 

A review of recent research, as well as new results, are presented on transition metal oxide clusters, surfaces, and crystals. Quantum-chemical calculations of clusters of first row transition metal oxides have been made to evaluate the accuracy of ab initio and density functional calculations. Adsorbates on metal oxide surfaces have been studied with both ab initio and semi-empirical methods, and results are presented for the bonding and electronic interactions of large organic adsorbates, e.g. aromatic molecules, on Ti02 and ZnO. Defects and intercalation, notably of H, Li, and Na in TiC>2 have been investigated theoretically. Comparisons with experiments are made throughout to validate the calculations. Finally, the role of quantum-chemical calculations in the study of metal oxide based photoelectrochemical devices, such as dye-sensitized solar cells and electrochromic displays, is discussed. 

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