Large-scale fabrication of pseudocapacitive glass windows that combine electrochromism and energy storage.

Multifunctional glass windows that combine energy storage and electrochromism have been obtained by facile thermal evaporation and electrodeposition methods. For example, WO3 films that had been deposited on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass exhibited a high specific capacitance of 639.8 F g(-1). Their color changed from transparent to deep blue with an abrupt decrease in optical transmittance from 91.3% to 15.1% at a wavelength of 633 nm when a voltage of -0.6 V (vs. Ag/AgCl) was applied, demonstrating its excellent energy-storage and electrochromism properties. As a second example, a polyaniline-based pseudocapacitive glass was also developed, and its color can change from green to blue. A large-scale pseudocapacitive WO3-based glass window (15×15 cm(2)) was fabricated as a prototype. Such smart pseudocapacitive glass windows show great potential in functioning as electrochromic windows and concurrently powering electronic devices, such as mobile phones or laptops.

Electrochromic Asymmetric Supercapacitor Windows Enable Direct Determination of Energy Status by the Naked Eye.

Because of the popularity of smart electronics, multifunctional energy storage devices, especially electrochromic supercapacitors (SCs), have attracted tremendous research interest. Herein, a solid-state electrochromic asymmetric SC (ASC) window is designed and fabricated by introducing WO3 and polyaniline as the negative and positive electrodes, respectively. The two complementary materials contribute to the outstanding electrochemical and electrochromic performances of the fabricated device. With an operating voltage window of 1.4 V and an areal capacitance of 28.3 mF cm-2, the electrochromic devices show a high energy density of 7.7 × 10-3 mW h cm-2. Meanwhile, they exhibit an obvious and reversible color transition between light green (uncharged state) and dark blue (charged state), with an optical transmittance change between 55 and 12% at a wavelength of 633 nm. Hence, the energy storage level of the ASC is directly related to its color and can be determined by the naked eye, which means it can be incorporated with other energy cells to visual display their energy status. Particularly, a self-powered and color-indicated system is achieved by combining the smart windows with commercial solar cell panels. We believe that the novel electrochromic ASC windows will have great potential application for both smart electronics and smart buildings.

Tailorable and Wearable Textile Devices for Solar Energy Harvesting and Simultaneous Storage.

The pursuit of harmonic combination of technology and fashion intrinsically points to the development of smart garments. Herein, we present an all-solid tailorable energy textile possessing integrated function of simultaneous solar energy harvesting and storage, and we call it tailorable textile device. Our technique makes it possible to tailor the multifunctional textile into any designed shape without impairing its performance and produce stylish smart energy garments for wearable self-powering system with enhanced user experience and more room for fashion design. The "threads" (fiber electrodes) featuring tailorability and knittability can be large-scale fabricated and then woven into energy textiles. The fiber supercapacitor with merits of tailorability, ultrafast charging capability, and ultrahigh bending-resistance is used as the energy storage module, while an all-solid dye-sensitized solar cell textile is used as the solar energy harvesting module. Our textile sample can be fully charged to 1.2 V in 17 s by self-harvesting solar energy and fully discharged in 78 s at a discharge current density of 0.1 mA.

Combining Bulk/Surface Engineering of Hematite To Synergistically Improve Its Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting Performance.

One of the most promising candidates for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting photoanode is hematite (α-Fe2O3) due to its narrow bandgap and chemical stability. However, the poor bulk/surface kinetics of hematite limits its PEC performance. Herein, a facile two-step approach is reported to synergistically improve the PEC performance of Fe2O3. First, through bulk engineering of Ti doping, the photocurrent density of Ti-Fe2O3 photoanode (1.68 mA cm(-2) at 1.23 VRHE) shows a 3-fold increase compared with that of pure Fe2O3 photoanode (0.50 mA cm(-2) at 1.23 VRHE). Second, the photocurrent density of Ti-Fe2O3 photoanode could be further enhanced to 2.31 mA cm(-2) by surface engineering of FeOOH. The enhanced PEC water splitting performance is proposed to be the synergistic effect of bulk and surface engineering, which can be mainly attributed to the great increase of charge separation efficiency and surface transfer efficiency.