Development and Manufacture of Polymer‐Based Electrochromic Devices

Abstract

The field of organic electrochromics is reviewed here, with particular focus on how the “electrochromic” as a functional material can be brought from the current level of accurate laboratory synthesis and characterization to the device and application level through a number of suited roll‐to‐roll methods compatible with upscaling and manufacture. The successful approaches to operational devices are presented in detail, as well as areas where future research would have a high impact and accelerate the development such as highly conducting and transparent substrates, electrolytes adapted for multilayer application and morphologically stable conjugated polymers.

Simplified All‐Solid‐State WO3 Based Electrochromic Devices on Single Substrate: Toward Large Area, Low Voltage, High Contrast, and Fast Switching Dynamics

“…[7][8][9] However, despite recent impressive advancements in EC materials and smart windows technology, the development of highly performing and durable solid-state systems remains one of the main open issues not yet fully addressed. [11,12] Therefore, these drawbacks have so far represented the main restrictions for a full maturation of smart windows technology into a marketable product. [6] At the same time, the use of liquid or gel electrolytes poses safety problems and requires a more complex sealing procedure and an additional lamination step of the two glass electrodes, limiting the speed of manufacturing process and increasing costs.…”

“…These can be distinguished into two main methodological approaches. [11,12,[24][25][26][27] Moreover, it offers advantages in terms of reduced costs, waste of raw materials, and speed of manufacturing, representing thus a very promising strategy for industrial exploitation. [19][20][21][22] In this case, the device is based on a standard "sandwich-type" configuration in which the gel electrolyte is interposed between two electrode substrates, and then treated by an extra UV curing or thermal process.…”

Semiconducting Single‐Walled Carbon Nanotubes or Very Rigid Conjugated Polymers: A Comparison

“…These include field-effect transistors, [203,269] photovoltaic cells, [92,270] photodiodes, [271,272] electrochromic cells, [262,273] light-emitting diodes, [150,274] thermoelectrics, [275,276] and polaritonic devices. These include field-effect transistors, [203,269] photovoltaic cells, [92,270] photodiodes, [271,272] electrochromic cells, [262,273] light-emitting diodes, [150,274] thermoelectrics, [275,276] and polaritonic devices.…”

“…[19,273,280] The observed change of color is a result of the ground state bleaching and redshifted (typically in the near-infrared) polaron absorption of the positively or negatively charged polymer (see Section 3.1). [19,273,280] The observed change of color is a result of the ground state bleaching and redshifted (typically in the near-infrared) polaron absorption of the positively or negatively charged polymer (see Section 3.1).…”

Synthesis and characterisation of azobenzene-bridged cationic–cationic and neutral–cationic electrochromic materials

“…Electrochromic materials (ECMs) refer to materials that undergo optical changes due to electrochemical reaction [1,2]. Electrochromic devices (ECDs), which are based on ECMs, have potential applications in smart windows [3][4][5][6], electrochromic displays [7,8], ink-jet printers [9], earth-tone chameleon materials [10,11], and anti-glare rear-view mirrors for cars [12,13].…”