Preparation of colorful glass/W/V₂O₅ electrochromic electrodes by magnetron sputtering

Abstract V 2 O 5 , an inorganic electrochromic (EC) material with rich color variation and natural abundance, has received extensive attention due to its polychromatic properties during the EC process. However, research on achieving multicolor tuning by combining the structural color generated from the light-matter interactions with the EC properties of V 2 O 5 is rare. Here, based on the detailed investigation of the process parameters of V 2 O 5 , we propose a new optical design of the colorful EC electrode with the V 2 O 5 /W Fabry–Pérot cavity constructed by magnetron sputtering on the glass substrate. By varying the thickness of the top layer of V 2 O 5 , the reflective electrodes exhibit seven different initial colors. Importantly, the designed EC electrode exhibits a vivid and rich wide color gamut when applying a voltage of −0.6–1.6 V. After 200 cycles, the color of the EC electrode and device can still change, demonstrating the potential of the glass/W/V 2 O 5 EC electrodes in the fields such as camouflage and anti-counterfeiting.