Colorless-to-colorful switching of electrochromic MXene by reversible ion insertion

Electrochromic (EC) materials that change color with voltage have been widely studied for use in dynamic windows. However, colorless-to-colorful switching with high contrast ratio is generically unattainable, especially for colorless-to-black electrochromic materials with an ultrahigh contrast ratio over the entire visible region. In this work, we developed Nb1.33C MXene-based dynamic windows with colorless-to-black switching of up to 75% reversible change in transmittance from 300 to 1,500 nm. By exploring the electrochromic effects of different electrolytes through in situ optical changes and electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance (EQCM), it is found that electrochromic behavior is greatly influenced by the extent of reversible Li+ insertion/deinsertion between the two-dimensional Nb1.33C MXene nanosheets. In addition, a colorless-to-black EC device based on Nb1.33C with an overall integrated contrast ratio over 80% was successfully constructed by a solution-processable spin coating method. This work enables a simple route to fabricate MXene-based high-performance electrochromic smart windows, which is important for further expanding the application of MXenes to optoelectronic and photonic applications. Funding Agencies|SSF Research Infrastructure Fellow Program [RIF 14-0074]; SSF Synergy Program [EM16-0004]; Knut and Alice Wallenberg (KAW) FoundationKnut & Alice Wallenberg Foundation [KAW2020.0033]; National Natural Science Foundation of ChinaNational Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) [61774077]; Guangdong Joint Research Fund [2020A1515110738]; Postdoctoral Research Foundation of ChinaChina Postdoctoral Science Foundation [2020M683187]; Key Projects of Joint Fund of Basic and Applied Basic Research Fund of Guangdong Province [2019B1515120073]; Guangzhou Key laboratory of Vacuum Coating Technologies and New Energy Materials Open Projects Fund [KFVE20200006]