Estimation of the composition parameter of electrochemically colored amorphous hydrogen tungsten oxide films

Abstract

The electrical and optical steady state observed in electrochemical coloration has been studied using asymmetric cells consisting of evaporated amorphous tungsten oxide films with 350–6000 Å thickness. The counter electrode used is indium wire, steel wire, or antimony-tin oxide film, and the electrolyte is a 1-N H2SO4 aqueous solution containing 10 vol % glycerol. The current and optical transmittance of the cells decrease with increasing time during coloration, and simultaneously reach a steady state. The optical density (λ=0.5 μm) in the steady state is proportional to the thickness of the tungsten oxide film, and the absorption coefficient at λ=0.5 μm of the colored oxide film in the state is approximately 9.0×104 cm−1. The effective charges which contribute to the coloration of films calculated from the charge injected until the electro-optical steady state were found to be 1.03–1.20×103 C/cm3. Assuming that the evaporated tungsten oxide films used have a distorted ReO3 structure, and that a hydrogen tungsten bronze HxWO3 is formed by coloration, the composition parameter x calculated from the average value of the effective charge, is 0.36, which is comparable with that of hydrogen tungsten bronze H0.33WO3 obtained for the colored crystalline WO3 films.