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Nano Research 2024, 17(5): 4437-4443 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-6322-6
Research Article | Issue | Published: 02 December 2023

Neutral color and self-healable electrochromic system based on CuI/Cu and I3−/I− conversions

Show Author's Information Junsen Zhong1,§,  Bingkun Huang1,2,§,  Kunjie Yang1,  Zuju Ma1( ),  Lingyu Du1,  Ning Luo1,3,  Fengjiao Tang1,  Chuanxin Hou1,  Fuyi Jiang1( ),  Litao Kang1( )
College of Environment and Materials Engineering, Yantai University, Yantai 264005, China
School of Energy and Power Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China
Shandong Laboratory of Advanced Materials and Green Manufacturing (Yantai), Yantai 264001, China

§ Junsen Zhong and Bingkun Huang contributed equally to this work.

Keywords:
self-healing, electrochromic, conversion reaction, CuI, neutral color
Topics:
Coatings Display devices Secondary batteries
Cite this article:
Zhong J, Huang B, Yang K, et al. Neutral color and self-healable electrochromic system based on CuI/Cu and I3−/I− conversions. Nano Research, 2024, 17(5): 4437-4443. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-6322-6
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

The electrochromic (EC) mechanisms of inorganic materials are usually based on reversible cation insertion/extraction or metal deposition/dissolution, which are plagued by ion trapping and dendrite growth, respectively. In this paper, a novel conversion-type electrochromic mechanism is proposed, by making good use of the CuI/Cu redox couple. This CuI-based electrochromic system shows a neutral color switching from transparent and dim grey. By simply increasing the bleaching voltage, I3−/I− redox couple can be further activated. The generated I3− will readily react with Cu, effectively improving the conversion reversibility and thereby rejuvenating the degraded electrochromic performance. Thanks to the well-designed electrode and the self-healing ability, this conversion electrochromic system achieves rapid response times (tcoloring: 23 s, tbleaching: 6 s), decant optical modulation amplitude (26.4%), high coloration efficiency (86.15 cm2·C−1), admirable cyclic durability (without performance degradation after 480 cycles) and excellent optical memory ability (transmittance variation < 1% after 10 h open-circuit storage). The establishment of this conversion-type electrochromism may inspire the exploration of novel electrochromic materials and devices.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Neutral color and self-healable electrochromic system based on CuI/Cu and I3−/I− conversions

Show Author's information Junsen Zhong1,§, Bingkun Huang1,2,§, Kunjie Yang1, Zuju Ma1( ), Lingyu Du1, Ning Luo1,3, Fengjiao Tang1, Chuanxin Hou1, Fuyi Jiang1( ), Litao Kang1( )
College of Environment and Materials Engineering, Yantai University, Yantai 264005, China
School of Energy and Power Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China
Shandong Laboratory of Advanced Materials and Green Manufacturing (Yantai), Yantai 264001, China

§ Junsen Zhong and Bingkun Huang contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

The electrochromic (EC) mechanisms of inorganic materials are usually based on reversible cation insertion/extraction or metal deposition/dissolution, which are plagued by ion trapping and dendrite growth, respectively. In this paper, a novel conversion-type electrochromic mechanism is proposed, by making good use of the CuI/Cu redox couple. This CuI-based electrochromic system shows a neutral color switching from transparent and dim grey. By simply increasing the bleaching voltage, I3−/I− redox couple can be further activated. The generated I3− will readily react with Cu, effectively improving the conversion reversibility and thereby rejuvenating the degraded electrochromic performance. Thanks to the well-designed electrode and the self-healing ability, this conversion electrochromic system achieves rapid response times (tcoloring: 23 s, tbleaching: 6 s), decant optical modulation amplitude (26.4%), high coloration efficiency (86.15 cm2·C−1), admirable cyclic durability (without performance degradation after 480 cycles) and excellent optical memory ability (transmittance variation < 1% after 10 h open-circuit storage). The establishment of this conversion-type electrochromism may inspire the exploration of novel electrochromic materials and devices.

Keywords: self-healing, electrochromic, conversion reaction, CuI, neutral color

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 12 September 2023
Revised: 29 October 2023
Accepted: 06 November 2023
Published: 02 December 2023
Issue date: May 2024

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2023

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements:

The authors thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 52371238, 22273081, and 52207249), the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (No. ZR2020ME024), Taishan Young Scholar Program (No. tsqn202211114), and the Open Foundation of Key Laboratory for Palygorskite Science and Applied Technology of Jiangsu Province (No. HPK202103) for financial support.

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