Electrochromic contrast plate

• US 20030103256A1
• Filed: 09/18/2001
• Published: 06/05/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Horst Berneth, Ralf Neigl, Serguei Kostromine, Wolfgang Jacobsen
• Original Assignee: Horst Berneth, Ralf Neigl, Serguei Kostromine, Wolfgang Jacobsen
• Inventors: Jacobsen, Wolfgang, Kostromine, Serguei, Neigl, Ralf, Berneth, Horst
• Granted Patent: US 6,930,815 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 359/265
• CPC Class Codes: C09K 9/02 Organic tenebrescent materials
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/1533 structural features not otherwise provided for
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0421 by interrupting or reflecting a light beam, e.g. optical touch-screen

Abstract

The invention relates to an electrochromic contrast plate which is either arranged as a discrete unit in front of the screen or is connected to the outer surface of the screen through a common sheet, consisting of a pair of transparent glass or plastic sheets which are provided, on one side each, with an electroconductive, transparent coating, and which are joined together on the sides of their conductive coating via a sealing ring, and in which the volume formed by the two sheets and the sealing ring is filled with an electrochromic medium, characterized in that the electrochromic medium is a liquid, a gel or a polymer. The invention furthermore relates to an electrochromic contrast plate with integrated touch screen which has a larger base area than the area of the screen, and, at at least one of the faces of the outer sheet (outer plate) of the electrochromic contrast plate, a radiation source is arranged whose light enters the outer plate and illuminates it, and, at the inner sheet (carrier plate), in the region which projects beyond the screen area, a photodetector is mounted in whose photosensitive solid-angle region part or all of the carrier plate is located, if it projects beyond the screen area. The invention furthermore relates to electrochromic side-chain oligomers or polymers which can be used as electrochromic media.

Claims

1. Electrochromic contrast plate (6), consisting of a pair of transparent glass or plastic sheets (5, 9), which are provided on one side each with an electroconductive, transparent coating (7, 8), and which are joined together at the sides of their conductive coating via a sealing ring, and in which the volume formed by the two sheets and the sealing ring is filled with an electrochromic medium (10), characterized in that the electrochromic medium (10) is a liquid, a gel or a polymer.

2. Electrochromic contrast plate according to claim 1, characterized in that the electrochromic medium comprises at least one pair of electrochromic and oxidizable or reducible substances OX₂ and RED₁.

3. Electrochromic contrast plate according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that an electrochromic medium is used in which

a) the reducible substance has at least one, preferably at least two, chemically reversible reduction waves in the cyclic voltammogram and the oxidizable substance correspondingly has at least one, preferably at least two, chemically reversible oxidation waves, or

b) the reducible substance and the oxidizable substance are covalently bonded to one another via a bridge B, or

c) the reducible and/or oxidizable substance selected are those in which the reversible transition between the oxidizable form and the reducible form or vice versa is associated with the breaking or formation of a σ

-bond, or

d) the reducible substance and/or the oxidizable substance are metal salts or metal complexes of metals which exist in at least two oxidation states, or

e) the reducible and/or oxidizable substance are oligomers and polymers which contain at least one of said redox systems, or alternatively pairs of such redox systems, as defined under a) to d), or

f) the reducible and/or oxidizable substance employed are mixtures of the substances described in a) to e), provided these mixtures comprise at least one reducible and at least one oxidizable redox system.

4. Electrochromic contrast plate according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the electrochromic medium comprises electrochromic oligomers or polymers of the formulae

Y—

[—

(—

B—

Z—

)_a—

(—

B—

Y—

)_b—

]_c—

B—

Z  

 

(L),

in which

Y and Z, independently of one another, are a radical OX₂ or RED₁,

where

OX₂ is the radical of a reversibly electrochemically reducible redox system, and

RED₁ is the radical of a reversibly electrochemically oxidizable redox system,

B is a bridging unit,

c is an integer from 0 to 1000, and

a and b, independently of one another, are an integer from 0 to 100, or

. . . -(D)_Γ

. . . -(E-B¹Y)_g- . . . -(F-B²-Z)_h- . . .  

 

(CL) and . . . -(D)_Γ

. . . -[E-(B¹-Y)_i-(B²-Z)_j]_g- . . . -(F-B²-Z)_h- . . .  

 

(CLX),

in which

D, E and F are components of an oligomer or polymer chain, where the units D, E and F may be either randomly distributed or arranged in blocks,

B¹ and B² are a bridging unit,

Y and Z, independently of one another, are a radical OX₂ or RED₁,

where

OX₂ is the radical of a reversibly electrochemically reducible redox system, and

RED₁ is the radical of a reversibly electrochemically oxidizable redox system,

f, g and h, independently of one another, are an integer from 1 to 100,000, in particular from 1 to 10,000,

where

f+g+h>

2,

f and h, independently of one another, may alternatively be 0, and

i and j, independently of one another, are an integer from 1 to 100, in particular from 1 to 10.

5. Electrochromic contrast plate according to claim 4, characterized in that the electrochromic medium comprises electrochromic side-chain oligomers or polymers of the formulae

6. Electrochromic contrast plate according to claim 4 or 5, characterized in that the electrochromic medium comprises electrochromic side-chain oligomers or polymers

in which

D represents the formula

—

CHY¹⁰—

CHY¹¹—

(CLXXI) and

E and F, independently of one another, represent the formula

—

CHY¹²—

CHY¹³—

(CLXXII),

in which

Y¹⁰ and Y¹², independently of one another, are hydrogen or C₁- to C₄-alkyl,

Y¹¹ is hydrogen, halogen, C₁- to C₄-alkyl, aryl or —

COO—

C₁—

to C₈-alkyl, and

Y¹³ is a direct bond or one of the bridges of the formula —

O—

, —

CO—

O—

, —

CO—

NH—

or —

C₆H₄—

to B¹ or B².

7. Electrochromic contrast plate according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that, on application of a voltage to the conductive coatings, the colour coordinates (x, y) of the electrochromic substances in the C.I.E. triangle are between 0.3 and 0.37, preferably between 0.31 and 0.35.

8. Electrochromic contrast plate according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the transmission of the electrochromic layer in the visible region varies on variation of the strength of an applied voltage.

9. Electrochromic contrast plate according to one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the minimum transmission of the electrochromic layer is less than 25%.

10. Electrochromic contrast plate according to one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the maximum transmission of the electrochromic layer is greater than 70%.

11. Electrochromic contrast plate according to one of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that, on application of a voltage to the conductive coatings, the electrochromic layer changes transmission in less than 5 minutes, preferably in less than 1 minute.

12. Device containing an electrochromic contrast plate according to the invention according to one of claims 1 to 10 and a screen, characterized in that the contrast plate is connected to the screen via a common sheet.

13. Electrochromic contrast plate with integrated touch screen (36), characterized in that an EC contrast plate according to one of claims 1 to 11 has a larger base area than the area of the screen (3), and, at at least one of the faces of the outer sheet (outer plate) (31) of the EC contrast plate (36), a radiation source (313) is arranged whose light enters the outer plate (31) and illuminates it, and, at the inner sheet (carrier plate) (32), in the region which projects beyond the screen area (3), a photodetector (37) is mounted in whose photosensitive solid-angle region part or all of the carrier plate (32) is located, if it projects beyond the screen area (3).

14. Electrochromic contrast plate with integrated touch screen according to claim 13, characterized in that the electroconductive, transparent coating is structured by at least one of the sheets of the EC contrast plate.

15. Electrochromic contrast plate with integrated touch screen according to claim 13 or 14, characterized in that the carrier plate has a coating which predominantly reflects the visible light, while it is predominantly transparent to the light emitted by the radiation source.

16. Electrochromic contrast plate with integrated touch screen according to claim 13 or 14, characterized in that the carrier plate has a coating which has an area which is transparent to the light from the radiation source, preferably in the centre of the photosensitive solid-angle region of the photodetector.

17. Electrochromic contrast plate with integrated touch screen according to one of claims 13 to 16, characterized in that the outer plate has a thickness of at least 0.05 mm and preferably at least 0.5 mm.

18. Electrochromic contrast plate with integrated touch screen according to one of claims 13 to 17, characterized in that the outer plate has a refractive index of at least 1.5 and preferably at least 1.6.

19. Electrochromic contrast plate with integrated touch screen according to one of claims 13 to 18, characterized in that the radiation source has an emission maximum at a wavelength of greater than 680 nm, preferably greater than 780 nm and particularly preferably greater than 850 nm.

20. Electrochromic contrast plate with integrated touch screen according to one of claims 13 to 19, characterized in that at least one and a maximum of three faces of the outer plate are coated with an optically reflective material.

21. Electrochromic contrast plate with integrated touch screen according to claim 20, characterized in that the optically reflective material used is gold, silver, copper, nickel or aluminium, and the coatings are produced by vapour deposition, sputtering, CVD or bonding on of metal-coated films.

22. Electrochromic contrast plate with integrated touch screen according to one of claims 13 to 21, characterized in that a plurality of photodetectors are mounted at the part of the carrier plate which projects beyond the screen area, a certain region of the outer plate which is unambiguously assigned to the photodetector being located in the photosensitive solid-angle region of each photodetector.

23. Electrochromic contrast plate with integrated touch screen according to one of claims 13 to 22, characterized in that each photodetector is followed by a unit for processing the electrical signal.

25. Electrochromic side-chain oligomers or polymers according to claim 24, of the formulae

. . . -(D)_Γ

. . . -(E-B¹-OX₂)_g- . . . -(F-B²-RED₁)_h- . . .  

 

(CLa), . . . -(D)_Γ

. . . -(E-B¹OX₂)_g-  

 

(CLb), . . . -(D)_Γ

. . . -(F-B²-RED₁)_h- . . .  

 

(CLc), . . . -(D)_Γ

. . . -[E-B¹-OX₂-B²-RED₁]_g- . . .  

 

(CLXa) or . . . -(D)_Γ

. . . -[F-B²-RED₁-B¹OX₂]_h- . . .  

 

CLXb)

in which

f is an integer from 0 to 10,000,

g and h, independently of one another, are an integer from 1 to 10,000, preferably from 1 to 1000, particularly preferably from 1 to 100, and

the other radicals are as defined in claim 1,

where OX₂ and/or RED₁, in particular if g and/or h are >

1, can have different meanings in each recurring unit.

24. Electrochromic side-chain oligomers or polymers of the formulae

26. Electrochromic side-chain oligomers or polymers according to claim 24 or 25,

in which

D represents the formula

—

CHY¹⁰—

CHY¹¹—

(CLXXI) and

E and F, independently of one another, represent the formula

—

CHY¹²—

CHY¹³—

(CLXXII),

in which

Y¹⁰ and Y¹², independently of one another, are hydrogen or C₁- to C₄-alkyl,

Y¹¹ is hydrogen, halogen, C₁- to C₄-alkyl, aryl or —

COO—

C₁- to C₈-alkyl, and

Y¹³ is a direct bond or one of the bridges of the formula —

O—

, —

CO—

O—

, —

CO—

NH—

or —

C₆H₄—

to B¹ or B².