Electrochemical Rejuvenation of Anodically Coloring Electrochromic Nickel Oxide Thin Films

Hui-Ying Qu; Daniel Primetzhofer; Miguel A Arvizu; Zhen Qiu; Umut Cindemir; Claes G Granqvist; Gunnar A Niklasson

doi:10.1021/acsami.7b13815

Electrochemical Rejuvenation of Anodically Coloring Electrochromic Nickel Oxide Thin Films

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2017 Dec 13;9(49):42420-42424. doi: 10.1021/acsami.7b13815. Epub 2017 Dec 1.

Authors

Hui-Ying Qu^{1

2}, Daniel Primetzhofer³, Miguel A Arvizu¹, Zhen Qiu¹, Umut Cindemir¹, Claes G Granqvist¹, Gunnar A Niklasson¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Engineering Sciences, The Ångström Laboratory, Uppsala University , SE-75121 Uppsala, Sweden.
² MIIT Key Laboratory of Critical Materials Technology for New Energy Conversion and Storage, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology , 150001 Harbin, China.
³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Ångström Laboratory, Uppsala University , SE-75120 Uppsala, Sweden.

PMID: 29164852
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b13815

Abstract

Nickel oxide thin films are of major importance as anodically coloring components in electrochromic smart windows with applications in energy-efficient buildings. However, the optical performance of these films degrades upon extended electrochemical cycling, which has hampered their implementation. Here, we use a potentiostatic treatment to rejuvenate degraded nickel oxide thin films immersed in electrolytes of LiClO₄ in propylene carbonate. Time-of-flight elastic recoil detection analysis provided unambiguous evidence that both Li⁺ ions and chlorine-based ions participate in the rejuvenation process. Our work provides new perspectives for developing ion-exchange-based devices embodying nickel oxide.

Keywords: ToF-ERDA; electrochemical rejuvenation; electrochromism; nickel oxide; thin film.