The role of oxygen to argon gas flow ratio on the durability of sputter-deposited electrochromic tungsten oxide films

• Materials that are able to vary their transparency and coloration reversibly when they are subjected to an electrical current or voltage are referred to as “electrochromic” (EC). High optical transmittance modulation and long service lifetime are apparent requirements for EC materials used in smart windows technology. An extended service lifetime is provided by the long-term durability of the materials. One important aspect of durability is the ability to sustain charge transport between the EC film and electrolyte, or between the two EC films in a device, for many hundreds or thousands of cycles without any significant changes in the performance such as optical modulation and inserted-extracted charge. The purpose of this study is to clarify the effects of the oxygen-argon gas flow ratio during sputter deposition on the durability of WO3 films. In this study, the oxygen to argon gas-flow ratio was modulated by setting the O2 flow rate to 7.5, 15.0, 22.5, and 45.0 ml min-1 and using a fixed Ar flow rate of 50 ml min-1. Thus, the oxygen to argon gas-flow ratio was varied from 0.15 to 0.90. The pressure in the sputter plasma was set as 30 mTorr and the sputter power was maintained at 200 W. For durability studies, cyclic voltammetry data were recorded for up to 500 cycles between 2.0 and 4.0 V versus Li/Li+ at a scan rate of 20 mV s-1. High oxygen to argon gas ratio was found to have a positive effect on the EC properties of the films. When the long-term performance of the films was examined, it was seen that all the samples displayed a slow decline of the colored-state transmittance due to ion accumulation in the host material. After 500 color-bleach cycles, the maximum optical transmittance modulation between colored and bleached states at a wavelength of 528 nm was 63.6% when the oxygen to argon gas-flow ratio was 0.90.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Materialteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Materials Engineering (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Engineering Science with specialization in Solid State Physics

Teknisk fysik med inriktning mot fasta tillståndets fysik

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kon (subject category)