Periodic macroporous nanocrystalline antimony-doped tin oxide electrode.

Optically transparent and electrically conductive electrodes are ubiquitous in the myriad world of devices. They are an indispensable component of solar and photoelectrochemical cells, organic and polymer light emitting diodes, lasers, displays, electrochromic windows, photodetectors, and chemical sensors. The majority of the electrodes in such devices are made of large electronic band-gap doped metal oxides fashioned as a dense low-surface-area film deposited on a glass substrate. Typical transparent conducting oxide materials include indium-, fluorine-, or antimony-doped tin oxides. Herein we introduce for the first time a transparent conductive periodic macroporous electrode that has been self-assembled from 6 nm nanocrystalline antimony-doped tin oxide with high thermal stability, optimized electrical conductivity, and high quality photonic crystal properties, and present an electrochemically actuated optical light switch built from this electrode, whose operation is predicated on its unique combination of electrical, optical, and photonic properties. The ability of this macroporous electrode to host active functional materials like dyes, polymers, nanocrystals, and nanowires provides new opportunities to create devices with improved performance enabled by the large area, spatially accessible and electroactive internal surface.