Sustainable Rejuvenation of Electrochromic WO₃ Films

Abstract

Devices relying on ion transport normally suffer from a decline of their long-term performance due to irreversible ion accumulation in the host material, and this effect may severely curtail the operational lifetime of the device. In this work, we demonstrate that degraded electrochromic WO3 films can sustainably regain their initial performance through galvanostatic detrapping of Li(+) ions. The rejuvenated films displayed degradation features similar to those of the as-prepared films, thus indicating that the detrapping process is effectively reversible so that long-term performance degradation can be successfully avoided. Detrapping did not occur in the absence of an electric current.