Effects of oxygen addition on enhancing electrochromic performance of flexible tungsten/tantalum oxide films using an atmospheric pressure plasma jet

An investigation was conducted on the lithium electrochromic performance of flexible organo-tungsten-tantalum oxide (WTaxOyCz) films enhanced by the addition of oxygen gases into an atmospheric pressure plasma jet at various flow rates for a short exposure duration of 33 s. The deposition of flexible WTaxOyCz films onto flexible 40 Ω/□ polyethylene terephthalate/indium tin oxide substrates using a certain addition of oxygen gas into plasma jet offers notable electrochromic performance after 200 cycles of reversible Li+ ion intercalation and de-intercalation in a 1 M LiClO4-propylene carbonate electrolyte tested by potential sweep switching between − 1 V and 1 V at a scan rate of 50 mV/s and the potential step switching at − 1 V for 20 s and 1 V for 13 s. The optical modulation (ΔT) of amorphous WTaxOyCz at a wavelength of 803.4 nm was significantly improved from 29.8% without the addition of oxygen gas to 61.2% with the addition of oxygen gas at a flow rate of 0.75 sccm into a plasma jet.