70 / 2026-09-23 09:15:08

Towards irradiance-adaptive electrochromic shading for photothermal regulation

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Electrochromics have widespread applications in smart buildings and information display.  Electrolyte development has been hampering the progress of flexible electrochromic devices. In this talk, we demonstrate a photocurable redox-active semi-solid electrolyte incorporating a bromide (Br⁻/Br₃⁻) redox mediator. A flexible electrochromics is constructed with inkjet-printed WO₃ electrodes and activated carbon electrodes on flexible ITO/PET substrates. Under AM1.5G simulated sunlight, the device simultaneously modulated light and heat, demonstrating thermal- management efficacy for smart-window applications. For outdoor applications, the irradiance is not constant, therefore we seek to establish understanding on the effect of electrochromics shading for crops growth in outdoor environment. We deploy an irradiance-adaptive electrochromic shading system to regulate photosynthetically active radiation. The system is autonomous and free of power input. Crops grown under electrochromic shading exhibited increases in vitamin C, total sugar, and pigments, together with a two-hundred-fold increase in biomass yield compared with a non-EC shading system.