Periodic Reporting for period 2 - INFUSION (Engineering optoelectronic INterfaces: a global action intersecting FUndamental conceptS and technology implementatION of self-organized organic materials)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2019-01-01 do 2022-08-31
The project aims at cross-fertilize the electrochromic technology joining specific expertise to realize a bottom-up approach toward the design, preparation and characterization of self-organized organic materials (chromophores, CNSs, polymers...) at different interfaces (ITO, graphene) and exhibiting superior performances (optical, durability…). For the transfer of knowledge, the project combines the multidisciplinary expertise in the field of organic chemistry, photochemistry, surface science, polymer and materials science, and device engineering.
The INFUSION School of "Electrochemistry, Photochemistry and Photophysics of Organic, Inorganic and Hybrid Materials" was co-organized in joint collaboration with another European project, the NOAH ITN project. It was a great success with 150 registered participants.
As regards DISSEMINATION, key aspects of the project and important questions at the heart of INFUSION research were illustrated by original info-graphics posted on the INFUSION website where they will remain for several years. The motivation was (1) to maximize the online reach of the project; (2) to offer researchers tools of communication; (3) to introduce researchers and PhD students involved in the project to new compelling ways of communicating research and engaging public opinion. The infographics files were uploaded in an open-data repository. 46 files are stored in a server of UNamur where they content can be downloaded freely by the interested users. A link to this repository has been created on the home page of the INFUSION web site. The repository will survive the duration of the INFUSION project.
The consortium has been very active in the communication of results to the scientific community. Up to now the number of publications in international scientific journal amounted to 47. Most of the papers published with acknowledgement to INFUSION have an open access, with immediate effect after publication for more than half of them. An embargo of 6 or 12 months after publications applied to the other. 36 publications have been uploaded of the OpenAire platform Zenodo under a so-called community named “Infusion” created in June 2018. Some papers have been highlighted by the editor of the journal they were published in. Some others made the cover page of the journal.
The scientific achievements obtained during INFUSION project address many problems and offer solutions to some limitations of the electrochromic materials available on the market as:
Color palette: different materials have been develop and small structural modifications allowed to obtain green, pink, cyan, blue…
Higher contrast between the two colors (or the not colored status and the colored one) without affecting the tone of the color
Lower time of response: the time in which the material changes its color when the voltage is applied has been decrease and reach the order of milliseconds
Durability: some of the produced devices showed stable characteristics also after 100000 color reversion (cycle)
Spontaneous aggregation: the assembly of the molecules in macrostructures as film, nanoparticles, fibers allowed to study the different behaviour of these materials, obtaining better results in the preparation of ECDs. New entities can aggregate in an ordered manner thanks to their interactions with other molecules
Green practices: some devices have been prepared dispersing the electrochromic materials in water and using this dispersion to prepare the active surfaces, replacing toxic and expensive solvents..
These goals are the results of strong efforts, good interactions and collaborations between the partners and allowed to prepare new inks for the construction of ECDs which overcome most of the problems highlighted above. These technological improvements will have a strong impact in the field of ECDs production and commercialization allowing to produce devices more efficient, durable and safe with a consequent development of the SME already involved and the foreseeable start-up of new ones. This can start a self-incrementing cycle, which will push the use of ECDs even further. Taking in account that the energy consumption of an ECD is minimal, this scenario will also ensure a considerable energy saving.