Abstract
Composite films of tungsten oxide and CNCs are prepared through a sol–gel method and their electrochromic (EC) properties investigated. After mixing CNC gel into a tungsten oxide precursor solution, indium-tin-oxide-coated glass substrates are dipped into the composite solution and subsequently annealed at 170°C. The composite films consisted of CNCs dispersed in the tungsten oxide matrix. The resulting nanocomposite was found to be amorphous, exhibiting a high transmission modulation and very good cycling stability. After having tested a range of compositions, a film of WO3 with 10% CNC was found to be the most uniform and showed good EC performance. These results bode well for further work on CNC-EC composites for specific applications, especially when used on flexible substrates.
Highlights
Tungsten oxide films can be prepared by various methods, including vacuum evaporation,[4,5] anodic oxidation,[6] spray pyrolysis,[7] sputtering,[8,9,10,11,12,13] laser ablation,[14] pulsed laser deposition,[15] and vacuum filtration and transfer,[16] the sol–gel technique gained attention due to its simplicity and versatility
As far as we know, we report an original study on the structure, morphology, and EC properties of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs)–tungsten trioxide composites prepared by a dipcoating method
CNCs were mechanically mixed with the tungsten oxide precursor solution, and thin films of the composite were subsequently deposited on indium-tin-oxide (ITO)-coated substrates
Summary
Tungsten oxide (WO3) has prompted numerous investigations due to its outstanding electro-1 and photochromic[2] properties. One of the more commonly utilized sol–gel methods is based on the reaction of the metallic tungsten with hydrogen peroxide that results in the formation of stable solutions of peroxopolytungstic acid, which contains the ðW2O11Þ2− anion.[20,21,22,23] By using a dip-coating deposition technique and suitable annealing temperatures, our group and others have prepared nanostructured thin films of tungsten oxide and its golddoped composites that have very good EC properties. As far as we know, we report an original study on the structure, morphology, and EC properties of CNC–tungsten trioxide composites prepared by a dipcoating method To this purpose, CNCs were mechanically mixed with the tungsten oxide precursor solution, and thin films of the composite were subsequently deposited on indium-tin-oxide (ITO)-coated substrates.
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