Project BriefGeneral Competition (December 1992)Electrochromic MaterialsDevelop low-temperature sol-gel processing techniques to deposit thin-film ceramic structures on glass and polymer substrates, leading to large-area electrochromic devices suitable for electronically controlled "smart windows." Sponsor: 3M Company, Industrial and Consumer Sector Research Laboratory3M CenterBuilding 224 - 2S-25 St. Paul, MN 55144
"Electrochromic" devices, a relatively new technology, are built from several layers of thin films deposited on a transparent base, such as glass. These thin-film battery devices have the unique property that with the momentary flow of a small electric charge, they can change from being clear to heavily shaded. By far the most important potential application is in "smart windows" -- electronically controlled windows that automatically lighten or darken depending on the amount of sunlight, the time of day, the season, or the personal preferences of the user. By shading the building on bright, summer days and opening it up to sunlight on cloudy or winter days, smart windows can be an important energy conservation device. Widespread use, in fact, would go a long way toward meeting national energy conservation goals. Present fabrication techniques for stable electrochromic devices are too expensive for a general market and require such high temperatures that only glass substrates are possible. 3M and SAGE, with CCR at Rutgers University, propose to develop a unique, low-cost process, pioneered at SAGE, for building electrochromic devices which incorporates a solution process. Research goals include further developing the SAGE process to build ceramic thin-film electrochromic devices on plastic films in addition to glass; enhancing the electrochromic materials to provide improved properties (e.g., longer service life, greater transparency in the "bleached" state, longer "memory" between charging); exploring additional necessary components of window systems, including transparent electrical conductors and lamination and sealing techniques; and actually constructing prototype large-scale electrochromic modules to demonstrate feasibility. In addition to window technology, success in this project will represent an important advance in the state of the art in low-temperature ceramic thin-film processing, with applications in rechargeable lithium batteries, sensors, neural networks, ferro-electric memories, superconductors, and optoelectronic circuits, among others.
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