Enhancement of electrochemical reversibility in Poly 3-hexylthiophene layers for flexible dynamic glass windows applications

Abstract

Thin films of Poly 3-hexylthiophene (P3HT) were deposited onto Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) coated glass substrates using a spin coating method and the films were vacuum annealed at different temperatures to study the effect of annealing on the electrochemical reversibility. From the absorption spectra, the variation of the optical band gap with annealing temperature was studied for different annealing temperatures. The optical band gap obtained for P3HT film deposited at room temperature (RT) was around 1.94 eV and 1.92 eV for the sample annealed at 100 °C. A cyclic voltammetry (CV) analysis showed that at certain applied redox potentials, P3HT thin films changed the colour from magenta to transparent and then back to magenta in the reverse potential. P3HT films annealed at 100 °C showed the best electrochemical reversibility among all the annealed samples. These electrically switchable electrochromic P3HT thin films can be used in flexible dynamic windows (FDWs) as smart windows for controlling the temperature and light in buildings, displays and mirror light modulators.