Towards Easy-to-assemble, Large Area Smart Windows: All-in-one Cross-linked Electrochromic Material and Device

• Published in: ACS applied materials & interfaces 2020-05
• Main Authors: Zheng, Rongzong, Wang, Yi, Pan, Jianbo, Malik, Haseeb Ashraf, Zhang, Hongping, Jia, Chunyang, Weng, Xiaolong, Xie, Jianliang, Deng, Longjiang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1944-8252
• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c02337

Conventional electrochromic devices with sandwich structure consist of multiple interfaces, which enhance electron trapping on the interfaces. Furthermore, crack generation in the electrochromic layer is inevitable due to repeated ion insertion and extraction during the service process. Those problems increase fabrication complexity and lead to poor performance and stability, severely limited and prime concern for future development of electrochromism field. Here, a strategy of all-in-one self-healing electrochromic material TAFPy-MA is presented, which has been utilized for fabrication of a high reliability, large scale and easy assembly smart electrochromic window. The all-in-one self-healing electrochromic material can take in-situ redox reactions with the Li+ ions to reduce the resistance transfer and avoid the interfaces obstacle, the reversible Diels-Alder cross-linking network structure can heal the cracks to improve the reliability of the electrochromic layer. Great ions diffusivity (1.13×10-5 cm2s-1), rapid colors switching (3.9/ 3.7 s), high coloration efficiency (413 cm2C-1), excellent stability (sustain 88.7% after 1000 cycles) and reliability (crack can be healed in 110 s), large-scale smart windows (30×35 cm2) are achieved by the all-in-one electrochromic material, which exhibit fascinating and promising features for a wide range of applications in buildings, airplanes, etc.