The Ministry of Science and Technology reported on 28 April 2026 that scientists had developed a smart oxide material that can store energy and change colour to show its charge level. The advance responds to a common limitation in electronic materials: a device usually stores power or displays information, but rarely does both together.
The material was developed at the Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences, Bengaluru, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology. It is an oxygen-deficient bimetallic oxide based on molybdenum and tungsten. In a device made from it, the colour changes from blue in the charged state to transparent in the discharged state, visibly signalling when fresh charging is needed.
The team, led by Principal Researcher Ashutosh Kumar Singh, synthesized the material by a solvothermal method. The release explained that missing oxygen atoms create spaces and active sites in the lattice. These gaps allow ions to move freely; as ions move to store charge, they also alter the electronic structure and produce the colour shift that works as a live indicator.
For electrochromic use, the researchers fabricated a 5 by 5 centimetre device. It showed 43% optical modulation at 700 nanometres and colouration efficiency of 147 square centimetres per coulomb, pointing to low power needs for a window made from the material. As a supercapacitor electrode, it showed 234 farads per gram at 5 amperes per gram and 975 millifarads per square centimetre at 5 millivolts per second. The study, published in Materials Chemistry A, reported 10000 charge-discharge cycles, retained function under bending and environmental conditions, and demonstrated power supply to an LCD timer and an LED.