Transparent inorganic multicolour displays enabled by zinc-based electrochromic devices

Abstract

Electrochromic displays have been the subject of extensive research as a promising colour display technology. The current state-of-the-art inorganic multicolour electrochromic displays utilize nanocavity structures that sacrifice transparency and thus limit their diverse applications. Herein, we demonstrate a transparent inorganic multicolour display platform based on Zn-based electrochromic devices. These devices enable independent operation of top and bottom electrochromic electrodes, thus providing additional configuration flexibility of the devices through the utilization of dual electrochromic layers under the same or different colour states. Zn-sodium vanadium oxide (Zn-SVO) electrochromic displays were assembled by sandwiching Zn between two SVO electrodes, and they could be reversibly switched between multiple colours (orange, amber, yellow, brown, chartreuse and green) while preserving a high optical transparency. These Zn-SVO electrochromic displays represent the most colourful transparent inorganic-based electrochromic displays to date. In addition, the Zn-SVO electrochromic displays possess an open-circuit potential (OCP) of 1.56 V, which enables a self-colouration behaviour and compelling energy retrieval functionality. This study presents a new concept integrating high transparency and high energy efficiency for inorganic multicolour displays.

Plasmonic Oxygen‐Deficient TiO2‐x Nanocrystals for Dual‐Band Electrochromic Smart Windows with Efficient Energy Recycling

“…The energy recycling performance of the DBED is comparable to newly developed Zn-based VIS light electrochromic devices which have shown highly efficient energy recycling. [47,48] For demonstration the energy released in the discharge process was used locally to light up an LED (Figure 5d). Under actual situation grid integration is highly recommended since the energy released locally may not have the quality and quantity required by other installed devices.…”

Transparent Zinc‐Mesh Electrodes for Solar‐Charging Electrochromic Windows

“…A number of electrochromic materials, including the cathodic electrochromic materials (e.g., WO 3 , [13,16] Ti-substituted tungsten molybdenum oxide, [14] V 3 O 7 , [2] and sodium vanadium oxide [17] ) and anodic electrochromic materials (e.g., Prussian blue (PB) [15,18] ), have shown great compatibility to the newlydeveloped ZECDs. Due to the fact that the anodic tinting property enables the windows to be colored during the daytime, PB is considered to be the most promising electrochromic material candidate for solar-charging smart windows.…”

Green revolution in electronic displays expected to ease energy and health crises

“…2g). Moreover, many beneficial attempts have also been made to solve the shortcomings of the limited color variation, such as via the color overlay effect of two segments of a sodium vanadium oxide electrode or incorporation of a plasmochromic metal-insulator-nanohole cavity, a photonic Fabry-Perot nanocavity, or others to achieve multicolor displays 13,38 (Fig. 2h).…”

“…g Scheme of the rechargeable hybrid Zn 2+ /Al 3+ electrochromic battery 17 . h Multicolor electrochromic display based on a SVO electrode 38 . i Electrochromic device assembled by an m-WO 3-X nanowire working electrode and an ITO glass counter electrode 36 .…”