Electrochromic properties of monosubstituted benzylboronic acid viologen

Abstract

Synthesis of monosubstituted benzyl boronic acid viologen (mBBV) has been achieved. The boronic acid group in mBBV can form boronic ester bonds with the hydroxyl groups in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), resulting in an all-in-one electrochromic gel. The immobilized viologen by boronic ester bonds can slow down the diffusion rate and effectively mitigate viologen dimerization, which may address the issues caused by dimerization. The optical contrasts of mBBV and mBBV-PVA reached 49.02% and 45.01%, respectively. The electrochemical and electrochromic properties obtained from the tests suggest the potential application of mBBV in the field of electrochromics.