A novel self-healing electrochromic film based on a triphenylamine cross-linked polymer

Abstract

The cracking of electrochromic materials due to aging or reiterative bending is a major problem which noticeably degrades the performance of electrochromic devices. In the present research, we successfully induced a triphenylamine derivative into furfuryl glycidyl ether, and further by a DA cross-linking polymerization reaction with maleimide (MA) to yield polymer DATPFMA. The color of the polymer film could be switched from faint yellow to green grey to dark blue. The observed coloration efficiency values of the polymer for the electrochromic process were 82.2 and 175.3 cm² C⁻¹ at 580 and 1060 nm, and the coloring and bleaching response times were 4.1 and 11.0 s, respectively. The self-healing process of the polymer film at 110 °C was observed by optical microscopy and the self-healing rate was about 80%. The results indicate that the polymer DATPFMA is a novel electrochromic material with noteworthy self-healing properties.