'Electric-paint displays' with carbon counter electrodes

'Electric-paint displays' are electrochromic displays with dyed nanostructured metal-oxide electrodes, e.g. viologen-derivatized nanostructured titanium dioxide electrodes. Such displays are particularly promising for applications with low switch frequency, large segment areas, and high demands on colours, background brightness, and large viewing-angles. The concept is simple and well suited for inexpensive industrial production methods. We present blue-on-white electric-paint displays with porous carbon counter electrodes. The initial results with laboratory prototypes are promising. The switch time is about 1/2 s and the reflectance in the bleached state is as high as 40-55% in the visible region. Furthermore, the display prototypes sustain more than 100 000 switching cycles without severe degradation. The results from spectroelectrochemical measurements on the assembled displays are presented. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.