Tungsten oxide nanowires grown on graphene oxide sheets as high-performance electrochromic material

• Published in: Electrochimica acta 2014-05, Vol.129, p.40-46
• Main Authors: Chang, Xueting, Sun, Shibin, Dong, Lihua, Hu, Xiong, Yin, Yansheng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Electrochromic; Electrochromism; Graphene; Graphene oxide; Hybrid composite; Nanostructure; Nanowires; Nucleation; Oxides; Solvothermal; Tungsten; Tungsten oxide; Tungsten oxides
• ISSN: 0013-4686; 1873-3859
• DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2014.02.065

Electrochromic mechanism of tungsten oxide nanowires-reduced graphene oxide composite. •A novel inorganic-nano-carbon hybrid composite was prepared.•The hybrid composite has sandwich-like structure.•The hybrid composite exhibited high-quality electrohcromic performance. In this work, we report the synthesis of a novel hybrid electrochromic composite through nucleation and growth of ultrathin tungsten oxide nanowires on graphene oxide sheets using a facile solvothermal route. The competition between the growth of tungsten oxide nanowires and the reduction of graphene oxide sheets leads to the formation of sandwich-structured tungsten oxide-reduced graphene oxide composite. Due to the strongly coupled effect between the ultrathin tungsten oxide nanowires and the reduced graphene oxide nanosheets, the novel electrochromic composite exhibited high-quality electrochromic performance with fast color-switching speed, good cyclic stability, and high coloration efficiency. The present tungsten oxide-reduced graphene oxide composite represents a new approach to prepare other inorganic-reduced graphene oxide hybrid materials for electrochemical applications.