Tungsten Oxide

Electrochromic glass windows on the market are able to change color tints when an electric voltage is applied, but don't offer very many color options. But according to New Atlas writer Darren Quick, that's about to change. Now researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research (IAP), working with Tilse Formglas GmbH have turned to a different technology that speeds up the switching process considerably and provides different color shades to tinted windows. Here's how the whole thing works: Most electrochromic glass windows on the market are produced by coating two panes of glass in a thin film of translucent indium tin oxide or fluorine-doped tin oxide to make the glass electrically conductive. Then one of the panes is coated in electrochromic tungsten oxide and the two panes are brought together with the coatings facing each other and a gel-like electrolyte separating them. When a voltage is applied, the tungsten oxide coating darkens, and when ...