Tungsten oxide-coated electrode, especially for water photo-electrolysis or organic waste photo-electrochemical decomposition or for an electrochromic display cell

摘要

An electrode is provided with an active WO3 film using a colloidal solution of tungstic acid in ethylene glycol, polyethylene glycol, maltose, glycerol, glucose, mannitol or myo-inositol. In the production of an electrode having an active WO3 film by applying a thin layer of a colloidal solution of tungstic acid in an organic material onto a conductive glass sheet and heat treating at -350 deg C, the organic material is selected from ethylene glycol, polyethylene glycol, maltose, glycerol, glucose, mannitol and myo-inositol. Preferred Features: The colloidal solution is prepared by: (a) mixing a tungstic acid solution with the organic material and forming a colloidal solution from the mixture; or (b) mixing a tungstic acid solution with ethanol, methanol, other volatile alcohol or dimethyl sulfoxide, forming a colloidal solution from the mixture and mixing the colloidal solution with the organic material. The tungstic acid solution is prepared by passage of an aqueous sodium tungstate solution across a cation exchange resin. The colloidal solution is formed by evaporation under reduced pressure. The deposition and heat treatment operations may be repeated up to 12 times.