Articles
  • Effects of deposition of an ultra-thin Al2O3 layer via atomic layer deposition on electrochromic property, self-discharge, and discharge capacity of photo-electrochromic devices

  • Woon-Yong Parka, Yoon-Tae Parka, Byung Guk Ahna,b,* and Ki-Tae Leea,b,c,d,*

  • aDivision of Advanced Materials Engineering, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonbuk 54896, Republic of Korea
    bHydrogen and Fuel Cell Research Center, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonbuk 54896, Republic of Korea
    cDepartment of Energy Storage/Conversion Engineering of Graduate School (BK21 FOUR), Jeonbuk National University, Jeonbuk 54896, Republic of Korea
    dDepartment of JBNU-KIST Industry-Academia Convergence Research, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonbuk 54896, Republic of Korea

  • This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Photo-electrochromic devices (PECDs) can be spontaneously colored by sunlight and used as energy storage devices. The major obstacle to improving the performance of PECDs is the self-discharge at the interface between electrolyte and electrochromic layers. To prevent self-discharge, we deposited ultra-thin Al2O3 films on the WO3 electrochromic layer using atomic layer deposition (ALD). The ALD-deposited Al2O3 layer effectively suppressed the self-discharge phenomenon that results from the reduction of iodine. Therefore, the transmittance modulation (ΔT), photocharged voltage, and discharge capacity increased with an increasing number of ALD cycles. Specifically, the discharge capacity of the PECD-A5 sample fabricated with five ALD cycles increased by 63.7% compared to the PECD without an Al2O3 layer. However, the relatively thick Al2O3 layer of the PECD-A10 sample fabricated with ten ALD cycles resulted in performance degradation due to the slow Li+ ion diffusion rate.


Keywords: Photo-electrochromic device, Electrochromic property, Self-discharge, Discharge capacity, Atomic layer deposition.

This Article

  • 2024; 25(1): 34-40

    Published on Feb 29, 2024

  • 10.36410/jcpr.2024.25.1.34
  • Received on Oct 4, 2023
  • Revised on Nov 21, 2023
  • Accepted on Nov 23, 2023

Correspondence to

  • Byung Guk Ahn a,b and Ki-Tae Lee a,b,c,d

  • aDivision of Advanced Materials Engineering, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonbuk 54896, Republic of Korea
    bHydrogen and Fuel Cell Research Center, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonbuk 54896, Republic of Korea
    cDepartment of Energy Storage/Conversion Engineering of Graduate School (BK21 FOUR), Jeonbuk National University, Jeonbuk 54896, Republic of Korea
    dDepartment of JBNU-KIST Industry-Academia Convergence Research, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonbuk 54896, Republic of Korea
    Byung Guk Ahn : Tel : +82-63-270-2300 Fax: +82-63-270-2386
    Ki-Tae Lee : Tel : +82-63-270-2290 Fax: +82-63-270-2386

  • E-mail: bkahn@jbnu.ac.kr, ktlee71@jbnu.ac.kr