Charge coloration dynamics of electrochromic amorphous tungsten oxide studied by simultaneous electrochemical and color impedance measurements

TL;DR

This study investigates the coloration mechanisms of amorphous tungsten oxide by simultaneously measuring electrical and optical responses, revealing how intercalation levels influence the dominant processes and synchronization of responses.

Contribution

It introduces a combined electrochemical and optical impedance spectroscopy approach to analyze coloration dynamics at different intercalation levels in electrochromic materials.

Findings

Coloration at low intercalation levels involves adsorption and diffusion.

At high intercalation levels, diffusion dominates the coloration process.

Electrical and optical responses are synchronized at low intercalation levels but diverge at higher levels.

Abstract

The coloration mechanisms in electrochromic (EC) systems can be probed by comparing the dynamics of the electrical and optical responses. In this paper, the linear frequency-dependent electrical and optical responses of an amorphous tungsten oxide thin film were measured simultaneously by a combination of two techniques$\text{---}$that is, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and the so-called color impedance spectroscopy (CIS). This was done at different bias potentials, which can be associated with different intercalation levels. Equivalent circuit fitting to the EIS spectra was used to extract the Faradaic components participating in the total impedance response. The latter were assigned to an intermediate adsorption step before the intercalation and to the diffusion of the electron-ion couple in the film. A quantity denoted complex optical capacitance is compared to the complex electrical capacitance$\text{---}$in particular, their expressions are related to the Faradaic processes. The coloration at low intercalation levels followed both the adsorption and diffusion phenomena. Conversely, the diffusion contribution was dominant at high intercalation levels and the adsorption one seemed to be negligible in this case. For perfectly synchronized electrical and optical responses, their complex spectra are expected to differ only by a multiplying factor. This was the case at low intercalation levels, apart from small deviations at high frequencies. A clear departure from this behavior was observed as the intercalation level increased. A combination of frequency-dependent techniques, as presented in this work, can help in the understanding of the dynamics of the coloration mechanisms in EC materials at various conditions$\text{---}$for example, at different intercalation levels and optical wavelengths.