Unveiling the function and mechanism of the ordered alignment silver nanowires on boosting the electrochromic performance

Abstract

Transparent conductive electrode fabricated by ordered alignment sliver nanowires (AgNWs) has been proved keeping an excellent performance in optics-electricity balance, which allows reaching lower resistance with the similar transmittance comparing with the general arrangement electrode. This is expected to bring positive benefits to the electrochromic process. This work introduces a simple spraying assistant method to obtain an ordered alignment of AgNWs. The ordered alignment electrode show significant improvement comparing with the general AgNWs electrode (86.6% in transmittance with 18.3 Ω/sq for the former versus 85%@ 63 Ω/sq for the latter), then the optimized electrode is used as the bottom electrode of the electrochromic films to improve response time (24.5% shorter in coloration and 44.2% shorter in bleaching) as well as cycling duration (maintaining 98% of initial optical modulation within 4000 s). Finally, the Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) test has been conducted in both coloration and bleaching processes to verify that the source of the improvement is indeed the optimized conductivity of electrode. We suggest the ordered alignment AgNWs electrode having obvious advantage as the bottom electrode of electrochromic device, and this work is aiming to predict the role of it, and unveiling the boosting function as well as the mechanism.