Nanostructures in Electrochromic Materials

Nanostructured electrochromic materials can facilitate charge transport in electrochromic devices in several ways, such as promoting electron conduction in electrochromic materials through incorporation of conductive nanofillers, providing loose packing structures for facile ion motion and creating large interfacial areas between the electrochromic material and electrolyte to increase the number of accessible reaction sites. These approaches are discussed in detail in this chapter. The chapter reviews the preparation methods, structures and morphologies, as well as electrochemical and electrochromic properties of different types of nanostructural electrochromic materials. The underlying mechanisms for their enhanced electrochromic performance are also discussed. The chapter talks about multi-phase electrochromic materials, which can be divided into two classes: nanocomposites with only physical interactions between their nanometre-scale phases, and anohybrids with interfacial chemical bonds. The electrochromic nanocomposites can be further divided into two categories: electrochromic/electrochromic and electrochromic/non-electrochromic nanocomposites.