title: Dye-Sensitized Nanostructured Crystalline Mesoporous Tin-doped Indium Oxide Films with Tunable Thickness for Photoelectrochemical Applications.
abstract: A simple route towards nanostructured mesoporous Indium-Tin Oxide (templated nano-ITO) electrodes exhibiting both high conductivities and optimized bicontinuous pore-solid network is reported. The ITO films are first produced as an X-ray-amorphous, high surface area material, by adapting recently established template-directed sol-gel methods using Sn(IV) and In(III) salts. Carefully controlled temperature/atmosphere treatments convert the as-synthesized ITO films into nano-crystalline coatings with the cubic bixbyite structure. Specially, a multi-layered synthesis was successfully undertaken for tuning the film thickness. In order to evaluate the performances oftemplated nano-ITOas an electrode substrate for photoelectrochemical applications, photoelectrodes were prepared by covalent grafting of a redox-active dye, the complex [Ru(bpy)2(4,4'-(CH2PO3H2)2-bpy)]Cl21(bpy=bipyridine). Surface coverage was shown to increase with the film thickness, from 0.7 × 10-9mol.cm-2(one layer, 45 nm) to 3.5 × 10-9mol.cm-2(ten layers, 470 nm), the latter value being ~ 100 times larger than that for commercially available planar ITO. In the presence of an electron mediator, photocurrents up to 50 μA.cm-2have been measured under visible light irradiation, demonstrating the potential of this newtemplated nano-ITOpreparation for the construction of efficient photoelectrochemical devices.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Paris-UMR7574, CNRS, Université Paris 6, Collège de France, 11 place Marcelin Berthelot 75005 Paris.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hamd
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Chimie et Biologie des Métaux, Université Grenoble 1, CNRS, CEA, 17 rue des Martyrs 38054 Grenoble cedex 9.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chavarot-Kerlidou
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Chimie et Biologie des Métaux, Université Grenoble 1, CNRS, CEA, 17 rue des Martyrs 38054 Grenoble cedex 9.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fize
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Paris-UMR7574, CNRS, Université Paris 6, Collège de France, 11 place Marcelin Berthelot 75005 Paris.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Muller
authors.affiliation: Department of Technology for Biology and Health, CEA LETI-MINATEC, 17 rue des Martyrs, F-38054 Grenoble CEDEX 9, France.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Leyris
authors.affiliation: Department of Technology for Biology and Health, CEA LETI-MINATEC, 17 rue des Martyrs, F-38054 Grenoble CEDEX 9, France.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Matheron
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Paris-UMR7574, CNRS, Université Paris 6, Collège de France, 11 place Marcelin Berthelot 75005 Paris.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Courtin
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Chimie et Biologie des Métaux, Université Grenoble 1, CNRS, CEA, 17 rue des Martyrs 38054 Grenoble cedex 9 ; Collège de France, 11 Place Marcelin Berthelot, 75005 Paris.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fontecave
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Paris-UMR7574, CNRS, Université Paris 6, Collège de France, 11 place Marcelin Berthelot 75005 Paris ; Collège de France, 11 Place Marcelin Berthelot, 75005 Paris.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sanchez
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Chimie et Biologie des Métaux, Université Grenoble 1, CNRS, CEA, 17 rue des Martyrs 38054 Grenoble cedex 9.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Artero
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Paris-UMR7574, CNRS, Université Paris 6, Collège de France, 11 place Marcelin Berthelot 75005 Paris.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Laberty-Robert
keywords: ITO; Mesoporous; Multi-layered; Photocurrents; Ruthenium dye; Sol-gel Process