Ion gels may lead to low-cost, color-changing display devices

The work of Professors Timothy Lodge and C. Daniel Frisbie and Post-Doctoral Researcher Hong Chul Moon on flexible electrochromics was recently highlighted in Chemical & Engineering News. Their research on how redox-active ion gels may one day enable low-cost, color-changing display devices and electronic displays made of plastic was first published in Chemistry of Materials.

Currently, electrochromic devices such as those used in smart windows and vehicle rearview mirrors, which lighten or darken when activated with applied voltage embedded in the glass, are expensive and rigid. Moon, Lodge and Frisbie are studying how a novel electrochromic gel may not have these limitations.

Professor Lodge talks about this research in the a Department of Chemistry video.