Electrochromic or photoelectrochromic device

• US 6,734,305 B2
• Filed: 06/07/2002
• Issued: 05/11/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Ecole polytechnique fãdãrale de lausanne epfl (Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft)
• Original Assignee: Ecole polytechnique fãdãrale de lausanne epfl (Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft)
• Inventors: Michael, Grätzel, Lorenz, Walder, Pierre, Bonhôte
• Primary Examiner(s): LESTER, EVELYN A
• Application Number:
  US10/165,318
• Publication Number:
  US 20020181068A1
• Time in Patent Office: 704 Days
• Field of Search: 359/265-275, 252/583, 252/586, 544/347, 546/257
• US Class Current: 544/347
• CPC Class Codes: B82Y 20/00 Nanooptics, e.g. quantum optics or photonic crystals
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/155 Electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 2202/36 Micro- or nanomaterials

Abstract

An electrochromic or photoelectrochromic device possessing the property of changing color under the effect of an electric voltage and/or of a variation in the intensity of a light radiation, this device comprising at least one cathode and one anode, at least one of these electrodes being constituted at least in part of a transparent or translucent substrate bearing an electrically conductive coating, and an electrolyte arranged between these electrodes, and an electric circuit connecting said cathode and anode, characterized in that at least one of these electrodes carries a coating constituted of at least one nanocrystalline layer of at least one semiconductive material, having a roughness factor equal to at least 20, and a monolayer of electrically active molecules or of an electrically active polymer, said monolayer being absorbed on the surface of this coating, and in that the device contains at least one auxiliary electrically active compound, possibly dissolved in the electrolyte, having the property of being capable of being oxidized or reduced in a reversible manner.

Claims

1. A type n electrochromophoric compound, characterised in that it is formed of one or more 4.4′

dialkvl-bipyridinium viologen groups linked by one or more alkyl chains which may include one or more phenylene groups and terminated by a phosphonate, salicylate, or catecholate group.

2. A type n electrochromophoric compound according to claim 1, characterised in that it further comprises a pyrrole, thiophene, vinyl, alcohol, or amine group.

3. A type n electrochromophoric compound, characterised in that it is formed of one or more diimide of naphthalene-1, 4,5,8-tetracarboxylic acid groups linked by one or more alkyl chains which may include one or more phenylene groups and terminated by a phosphonate, salicylate, or catecholate group.

4. A type n electrochromophoric compound according to claim 3, characterised in that it further comprises a pyrrole, thiophene, vinyl, alcohol, or amine group.

5. A type p electrochromophoric compound, characterised in that it is formed of one or more triarylamine groups linked by one or more alkyl chains which may include one or more phenylene groups and terminated by a phosphonate, salicylate, or catecholate group.

6. A type p electrochromophoric compound according to claim 5, characterised in that it further comprises a pyrrole, thiophene, vinyl, alcohol, or amine group.

7. A sensitising agent compound to which are linked one or more type p electrochromophoric groups, characterised in that the sensitising agent is a ruthenium complex comprising polypyridine ligands of which at least one possesses one or more phosphonate, carboxylate, salicylate, or catecholate groups and at least one or more triarylamine groups.

8. A sensitising agent compound according to claim 7, characterised in that it further comprises a pyrrole, thiophene, vinyl, alcohol, or amine group.