Method for producing an electrochromic device

• US 6,302,986 B1
• Filed: 03/30/1999
• Issued: 10/16/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Nippon Mitsubishi Oil Corporation (ENEOS Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nippon Mitsubishi Oil Corporation (ENEOS Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kobayashi, Yukio, Nishikitani, Yoshinori, Toya, Tomohiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Knable, Geoffrey L.
• Application Number:
  US09/281,386
• Time in Patent Office: 931 Days
• Field of Search: 156/107, 156/109, 156/145, 156/292, 156/293, 359/272, 359/273, 359/265
• US Class Current: 156/109
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/161 Gaskets; Spacers; Sealing of cells; Filling or closing of cells

Abstract

Disclosed is a method for producing an electrochromic device providing an opening in the surface of each of the two electrically conductive substrates of the cell, not in the end surface of the opposed substrates, to fill the inside of the hollow cell with an electrolyte or the precursor thereof by injecting through the injection port, to seal temporarily the injection port with a material which can be deformably inserted into the port and to seal secondarily the temporarily sealed port by applying thereon only an adhesive or a sheet-like member over the adhesive.

Claims

1. A method for producing an electrochromic device which comprises the steps of (a) assembling a hollow cell constituting an electrochromic device by opposing two electrically conductive substrates, at least one of which is transparent and either of which is provided with an injection port for an electrolyte or a precursor thereof, in a spaced-apart relationship with each other and sealing together the entire peripheral edges of the opposed substrates;

(b) filling the inside of the hollow cell with an electrolyte or the precursor thereof by injecting through the injection port;

(c) sealing temporarily the injection port with a material selected from the group consisting of a natural rubber and a synthetic rubber which is deformably inserted into the port; and

(d) sealing secondarily the temporarily sealed port by applying thereon only an adhesive or a sheet member over the adhesive.

2. A method for producing an electrochromic device according to claim 1 wherein said synthetic rubber is selected from the group consisting of isoprene rubber, butadiene rubber, styrene-butadiene rubber, butyl rubber, ethylene-propylene rubber, chloroprene rubber, chlorosulfonated polyethylene, nitrile rubber, urethane rubber, polysulfide rubber, acrylic rubber, epichlorohydrin rubber, silicone rubber, fluorine rubber and hydrogenated nitrile rubber.

3. A method for producing an electrochromic device according to claim 1, wherein the secondary sealing is carried out by applying the sheet member over the adhesive on the temporarily sealed port, and said sheet member is selected from the group consisting of a glass sheet, a ceramic sheet and a synthetic resin sheet.

4. A method for producing an electrochromic device according to claim 3 wherein said sheet member is a synthetic resin sheet and said synthetic resin sheet is formed from a material selected from the group consisting of polyethylene terephtalate, polyamide, polysulfone, polyether sulfone, polyether etherketone, polyphenylene sulfide, polycarbonate, polyimide, polymethyl methacrylate, polystyrene, tricellulose acetate, polymethylpentene, polysiloxane, polyethylene, polypropylene, polycellulose acetate, phenolic resin, urea resin, epoxy resin, polyvinyl acetate, polyvinyl acetal, polyvinyl alcohol, acrylic and methacrylic esters and cyanoacrylate.