Research Information System
23. German Zeolith-Congress, Erlangen, Germany, 2 - 11 March 2011, pp.172
The preparation of porous, i.e. high surface area electrodes from transparent conducting oxides (TCO) is a valuable goal in materials chemistry as such electrodes can enable further development of optoelectronic, electrocatalytic or bioelectronic devices. In this context, tin doped indium oxide films (ITO) are one of the most used materials, because of their high conductivity and transparency. A novel approach to ITO related coatings, namely to tin-rich indium tin oxide (ITBO) coatings was developed based on a single source molecular precursor approach [1]. Starting from indium tin tris-tert-butoxide as single source precursor in toluene, highly transparent and conductive coatings, although amorphous, could be obtained after thermal treatment at temperatures as low as 250°C. In this work tin-rich mesoporous indium tin oxide films (mp-ITBO) are prepared by combining the above described molecular heterobimetallic single source precursor approach with templating techniques using block polymers as structure directing agent, yielding materials with high surface areas and tailorable pore sizes (5 - 13 nm). The as prepared mp-ITBO films show a high and durable electrical conductivity and transparency, making them ideal candidates for hosting electroactive biomolecules such as proteins. In fact, its unique performance in bioelectronic applications has been demonstrated by immobilization of high amounts of electrochemically active and native cytochrome c into the mesoporous films. It was further shown that the electron exchange between the immobilized cytochrome c molecules and mp- ITBO pore wall is fast and reversible.
[1] Aksu Y., Driess M., A Low-Temperature Approach to Highly Conductive Tin-Rich Indium Tin Oxide Thin Films with Durable Electro-Optical Performances, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed, 2009, 48, 7778-7782.