Photochromic TiO₂/PEGDA organogels

Photochromic materials can be used for modulation of the visible and infrared light transmittance for providing privacy or energy saving by blocking the heat. Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanoparticles has been well reported as a promising photochromic material. However, a high photochromic response from TiO₂ can be observed only when the nanoparticles are dispersed in a strong photogenerated hole scavenger at a liquid state, but polymer composites are less responsive due to lack of hole scavenging capability. However, it is intricate to apply suspensions in real window devices because of possible leaking. Here, we describe the preparation of TiO₂ quantum dot (QD)-based gels from polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA), N,N-Dimethylformamide (DMF), and ethanol (EtOH). Photochromic gels with TiO₂ contents (1-5 volume%) show performance comparable to their colloidal counterparts with capable of photodarkening within 30 min with a transmittance change ranging from 35.8 to 84.5% at 550 nm. These gels were capable of fully recovering the initial transmittance when not exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light within 3-8 h. The photochromic gel systems with ethanol shows reasonable stability by decreasing in transmittance recovery only by less than 10% in 10 cycles. A potential application for the developed photochromic gels can be photochromic windows.