Sun Jiawei, Chen Zhe, Zhang Renfu, Yin Menghan, Zhu Ying, Hu Jiacheng, Zhou Qinqi, Shao Peipei, Huang Qingjiao, Ma Dongyun, Wen Rui-Tao, Wang Jinmin
School of Materials and Chemistry, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China.
Nat Commun. 2025 Jul 30;16(1):6993. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-61854-3.
Electrochromic technology has been considered as an energy-efficient approach to reduce the energy consumption in buildings and vehicles. Studies of electrochromic devices (ECDs) have so far focused mainly on control of cations (for example, H, Li, Na, K, and Zn, etc), while anions were rarely considered. Here, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) provides direct evidence that the transformation of Prussian blue (PB) to Prussian green (PG) occurs due to an anion intercalation process, in addition to the cation intercalation-induced switching between PB and Prussian white (PW). Co-intercalation of cations and anions is found in an ECD combining NbWO and PB as complementary electrochromic layers: cations (for example, K) insertion into NbWO leads to its colored state and anions (for example, Cl) insertion into PB forms PG. Benefiting from the co-intercalation of both cations and anions, the NbWO/PB based ECD can achieve diverse color and spectral modulations while maintaining excellent performance retention, thanks to the charge balance design. The concept of co-intercalation of cations and anions in an ECD provides a new approach to the development of next-generation high-performance ECDs.
电致变色技术被认为是一种节能方法，可降低建筑物和车辆的能源消耗。迄今为止，对电致变色器件（ECD）的研究主要集中在阳离子（例如H、Li、Na、K和Zn等）的控制上，而阴离子很少被考虑。在这里，X射线光电子能谱（XPS）提供了直接证据，除了阳离子嵌入引起的普鲁士蓝（PB）和普鲁士白（PW）之间的切换外，普鲁士蓝（PB）向普鲁士绿（PG）的转变是由于阴离子嵌入过程发生的。在将NbWO和PB作为互补电致变色层的ECD中发现了阳离子和阴离子的共嵌入：阳离子（例如K）插入NbWO导致其显色状态，阴离子（例如Cl）插入PB形成PG。受益于阳离子和阴离子的共嵌入，基于NbWO/PB的ECD可以实现多种颜色和光谱调制，同时由于电荷平衡设计而保持优异的性能保留。ECD中阳离子和阴离子共嵌入的概念为下一代高性能ECD的开发提供了一种新方法。
