Development of Transparent Electrodes Using Graphene Nano-lnk and Post-Consumer PET Bottles for Electrochromic Application

摘要

Electrochromism refers to the reversible change of color of thin films due to a small change in the voltage. This is important for smart windows and display applications. The color change takes place because of intercalation and deintercalation of ions, which is controlled by voltage applied between transparent conductive oxide (TCO) layers. In this research, the use of graphene nano-ink and post-consumer poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) bottles as the flexible electrochromic windows was reported. PET film was coated with graphene ink by spin coating method. The sheet resistance value of PET/graphene electrode was 19 H/sq. The polypyrrole (PPy) also was electroactive and had good adhesion towards transparent substrate. Our results primarily indicated that the novel PET/graphene/PPy/graphene/PET electrochromic device offered an optical modulation, in which the color of the device switched from the black color to the yellow color under the applied potential at ± 2.0 V. The graphene in the electrochromic device demonstrated a potential for replacing indium tin oxide (ITO) in flexible electrochromic windows.