Over the past years the performance of electrochromic smart windows with the promising potential for significant energy savings has been progressively improved; however, the electrochromic windows have not yet to come into use at scale mainly because the electrochromic materials suffer from some significant drawbacks such as low coloration efficiency, slow switching time, bad durability and poor functionality. Herein, we fabricate the optically modulated electrochromic smart devices through sequential deposition of the crown-type polyoxometalates, K28Li5H7P8W48O184·92H2O (P8W48), and W18O49 nanowires. Unlike most reported electrochromic smart devices, the resulting P8W48 and W18O49 nanocomposites allow active and selective manipulation of the transmittance of near-infrared (750-1360 nm) and visible light (400-750 nm) by varying the applied potential. Furthermore, thanks to the stable nature of both P8W48 and W18O49 and precise structural control over the nanocomposites, the prepared electrochromic smart devices exhibit high efficiency, quick response and excellent stability.
Keywords: W18O49 nanowires; electrochromic device; near-infrared; polyoxometalates; visible light.