Improving the color switch contrast in PEDOT:PSS-based electrochromic displays

Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) chemically doped with poly(styrene sulfonic acid) (PEDOT:PSS) is a material system commonly used as a conductive and transparent coating in several important electronic applications. The material is also electrochemically active and exhibits electrochromic (EC) properties making it suitable as the active element in EC display applications. In this work uniformly coated PEDOT:PSS layers were used both as the pixel electrode and as the counter electrode in EC display components. The pixel and counter electrodes were separated by a whitish opaque and water-based polyelectrolyte and the thicknesses of the two EC layers were varied independently in order to optimize the color contrast of the display element. A color contrast (ΔE∗, CIE L∗a∗b∗ color space) exceeding 40 was obtained with maintained relatively short switching time at an operational voltage less than 2 V.

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► The color contrast of electrochromic (EC) display based on PEDOT:PSS was optimized.
► The thickness of the EC polymer on each electrode was varied.
► High color contrast (ΔE > 40) was achieved.
► Short switching time (<50 ms) and low operation voltage (<2 V) was maintained.