Electrochromic iontronic devices based on nanoscale cell membrane-inspired hydrated ion channels in Nafion solid polyelectrolyte

Abstract

An ion channel in a cell membrane offers a path of ion migration for perception and communication in biology. Under this inspiration, in this paper, the hydrated ion channel is introduced in a solid Nafion polyelectrolyte for electrochromic (EC) iontronic device based on WO3. The hydrated ion channels can effectively regulate the coloration when gating the ion migration and injection into the WO3. The coloration is characterized at different voltages in time responses. A transmission change over 50% at 400 nm is realized. This offers a new route to design functional EC iontronics that encoded the bio-mechanism.