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Color-Changing Textiles and Electrochromism

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Handbook of Smart Textiles

Abstract

Color plays a vital part in our lives, acting to warn (i.e., red is hot, blue is cold), to direct (i.e., red is stop, green is go), or to express (i.e., red is angry, blue is sad). As a powerful form of communication, color, and in particular a change in color, is irreplaceable. Textiles with the ability to change color provide the opportunity to act as a flexible communicative display. The display can be used to express emotions and opinions or can be used for identification and decoration or safety and camouflage purposes. In this chapter a range of pre-existing color-changing textiles that apply LED, optical fiber, and chromic (thermo-, photo-, halo-) technologies are considered. The possibilities of flexible communicative displays using electrochromic technologies are then explored in detail. The principals of electrochromism are discussed and electrochromic materials and their devices (ECDs) introduced. There is a great potential provided when electrochromism is applied to flexible textiles. A flexible color-changing display, visible in natural and ambient light, offers endless opportunities. A number of challenges for the optimization and commercialization of flexible electrochromic devices (F-ECDs) exist. However, with the persistent improvements, which are being made, the field as a whole will continue to see great success. A colorful future is ahead for flexible electrochromic devices.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ENSAIT, GEMTEX, 2 allée Louise et Victoire Champier, Roubaix, 59100, Cedex 1, France

    Fern M. Kelly & Cédric Cochrane

  2. University of Lille Nord de France, Lille, 59000, France

    Cédric Cochrane

Authors
  1. Fern M. Kelly
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  2. Cédric Cochrane
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fern M. Kelly .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Textiles and Clothing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong

    Xiaoming Tao

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© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore

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Kelly, F.M., Cochrane, C. (2015). Color-Changing Textiles and Electrochromism. In: Tao, X. (eds) Handbook of Smart Textiles. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4451-45-1_16

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