Simultaneous achievement of high visible transmission and near-infrared heat shielding in flexible liquid crystal-based smart windows via electrode design

•Ultra-thin Ag films were achieved by introducing Cu dopant.•TiO2/Ag(Cu)/TiO2 (TCAT) electrode was designed and optimized for PDLC device.•TCAT based PDLC device reached high transmittance of 84.9% at ON state.•TCAT based PDLC device exhibited excellent heat shielding performance.•TCAT based PDLC device exhibited 4.6 °C lower temperature than ITO counterpart.