Study on the properties of polyaniline composite TiO2 electrochromic materials

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AbstractPolyaniline (PANI) composite is an effective way to improve the electrochromic properties of inorganic materials. However, there is still a lack of systematic research on the electrochromic properties of PANI composite titanium dioxide (TiO2) materials. In this work, TiO2 thin films with different PANI composite contents (PANI‐TiO2) were prepared by deposition method combined with hydrothermal method. The effects of different composite contents of PANI on the morphology and electrochromic properties of the samples were investigated using X‐ray diffraction (XRD), Raman, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), high‐resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR‐TEM) and electrochemical methods. It was found that a certain amount of PANI composite could enhance the electrochromic properties of TiO2 electrochromic materials. In this study, the 5% PANI‐TiO2 film has the best electrochromic performance, the ion diffusion coefficient of 5% PANI‐TiO2 composite film is 7.42 × 10−10 cm2/s, the optical modulation increased by 54.2%, and the bleached and coloured switching time are 19.98 and 33.45 s, respectively, which all indicate that the appropriate amount of PANI composite can enhance the electrochromic performance of TiO2 materials. These results show that the appropriate amount of PANI composite is indeed as an effective way to optimise the electrochromic performance of TiO2.