Smart window

The dye sensitised semi-conductor electrode is a transparent conducting sheet of glass coated (5 pm) with nanocrystalline TiOj (diameter 20 nm) doped with a ruthenium bipyridyl complex. The dye absorbs light, becomes excited and injects electrons into the TiOj electrode. The electrons travel into the transparent WO3 hhn and then, to balance the charge, lithium ions from the electrolyte solution insert into the WO3 and in so doing create the coloured species as described above. If the light source is removed then the cell is bleached back to its original colour. However, if the 

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An interesting material with both electro- and therm ochromism behavior, Li VO2 was evaluated for a "smart window" appHcation (25). Films of Li V02 were prepared by reactive sputtering and annealing an electrolyte of LiClO and propylene carbonate. 

Warner, J. Reilly, S. Selkowatz, S. and Arasteh, U. (1992). Utility and Economic Benefits of Electrochromic Smart Windows. Proceedings of the AC.FFF, 1992 Summer Study on Energy Efficiency, Asilomar Conference Center, Pacific Grove, CA. 

The presence of polymer, solvent, and ionic components in conducting polymers reminds one of the composition of the materials chosen by nature to produce muscles, neurons, and skin in living creatures. We will describe here some devices ready for commercial applications, such as artificial muscles, smart windows, or smart membranes other industrial products such as polymeric batteries or smart mirrors and processes and devices under development, such as biocompatible nervous system interfaces, smart membranes, and electron-ion transducers, all of them based on the electrochemical behavior of electrodes that are three dimensional at the molecular level. During the discussion we will emphasize the analogies between these electrochemical systems and analogous biological systems. Our aim is to introduce an electrochemistry for conducting polymers, and by extension, for any electrodic process where the structure of the electrode is taken into account. 

Solid mixed ionic-electronic conductors (MIECs) exhibit both ionic and electronic (electron-hole) conductivity. Naturally, in any material there are in principle nonzero electronic and ionic conductivities (a i, a,). It is customary to limit the use of the term MIEC to those materials in which a, and 0, 1 do not differ by more than two orders of magnitude. It is also customary to use the term MIEC if a, and Ogi are not too low (o, a i 10 S/cm). Obviously, there are no strict rules. There are processes where the minority carriers play an important role despite the fact that 0,70 1 exceeds those limits and a, aj,i< 10 S/cm. In MIECs, ion transport normally occurs via interstitial sites or by hopping into a vacant site or a more complex combination based on interstitial and vacant sites, and electronic (electron/hole) conductivity occurs via delocalized states in the conduction/valence band or via localized states by a thermally assisted hopping mechanism. With respect to their properties, MIECs have found wide applications in solid oxide fuel cells, batteries, smart windows, selective membranes, sensors, catalysis, and so on. 

In general, the term electrochromism is used to describe the change in light absorption as a result of an electrochemical reaction. Recent interest in electrochromism stems from its potential applications in numerous devices, such as flat screen displays, antidazzle mirrors, smart windows, and others. 

Figure 33.1a illustrates the idea of the smart window. In this device a layer of electrochromic material and a layer of a transparent ion-conducting electrolyte are sandwiched between two optically transparent electrodes (OTEs). Indium-doped tin oxide on glass is used most commonly as the OTE. This material has very low... 

FIGURE 33.1 Schematic illustration of (a) a smart window or transmission display (b) a front-illumination display (c) an antidazzle mirror. (From Bohnke, 1992, with permission of Cambridge University Press.)... 

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. 

Electrochromic materials, which change color when subjected to an electric field, are widely explored for application as smart windows that control the amount of light reflected or transmitted. Color production is linked to defect formation in an otherwise colorless matrix. 

Windows, with tunable optical properties, 23 25. See also Smart windows WindStor system, 25 526 Wind-turbine-generator system electricity produced by, 26 94 Wine Aroma Wheel, 26 325 Wine, 26 295-332, 3 561-562... 

There is increasing interest in optical devices commonly called electro-chromic (smart) windows (EWs), i.e. ECDs which allow electrochemically... 

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 ... 

Fig. 11.31 Cross section of an electrochromic light transmission modulator (smart window) (Rauh and Cogen, 1988).

Fig. 11.32 Transmission, 7(%) vs wavelength, X, for the smart window, ITO/WOs/LiNbOs/ V205/In203 (a) bleached state (b) coloured state (Goldner et al, 1988).

Electrochromic materials are electroactive compounds whose visible spectra depend on the oxidation state. Possible applications are smart windows, displays, mirrors, and so on. Among the most important performance aspects in electrochromic materials, the reversibility and lifetime of the material to repeated cycles, the time of response (usually in order of seconds), the colors of the oxidized/reduced forms and the change in absorbance upon redox switching (contrast) are of interest. 

While the amount of electricity that can be conducted by polymer films and wires is limited, on a weight basis the conductivity is comparable with that of copper. These polymeric conductors are lighter, some are more flexible, and they can be laid down in wires that approach being one-atom thick. They are being used as cathodes and solid electrolytes in batteries, and potential uses include in fuel cells, smart windows, nonlinear optical materials, LEDs, conductive coatings, sensors, electronic displays, and in electromagnetic shielding. 

The chemistry and applications of the colour change grouping, containing all the well-known isms of chromic phenomena, namely photochromism, thermo-chromism, ionochromism, electrochromism and solvatochromism, as well as the lesser-known ones such as tribochromism and vapochromism, are covered in Chapter 1. These chromic phenomena impinge on our everyday life, e.g. in photo-chromic spectacle lens, thermochromic temperature indicators, fax paper, smart windows and mirrors and in visual displays. 

The materials that change colour on passing a charge are called electrochromes, and these can be classified into three groups. In the first type the colouring species remain in solution in the second type the reactants are in solution but the coloured product is a solid the third type are those where all the materials are solids, e.g. in films. The first type is used in car, anti-dazzle, rear-view mirrors, the second type in larger mirrors for commercial vehicles and the third type in smart windows (see section 1.5.4.2). 

Figure 1.37 Smart window from combined DSSC and EC cells.

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