Effect of annealing temperature on electrochemical luminescence properties of nanoporous fluorine-doped tin oxide films.

Nanoporous Fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) materials were synthesized by sol-gel combustion method for electrochemical luminescence (ECL) application. The influence of annealing temperature on the structures and morphology of the nanoporous FTO films was examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), optical transmittance and BET specific surface measurements. The naoporous FTO-based ECL cell is composed of FTO glass/nanoporous FTO/Ru(bpy)(3)(2+) electrolyte/FTO glass. The peak intensity of emitting light from the cell was obtained at the wave-length of about 615 nm, which corresponds to dark orange color. At 5 V bias, ECL efficiency of the cell using the 550 degrees C annealed FTO was about 975 cd/m(2), which is much higher than those of other cells. The result shows that the nanoporous FTO layer was more effective for increasing ECL intensities. The sol gel combustion method at annealing temperature of 550 degrees C could be employed to synthesize the nanoporous FTO materials with high porosity and ECL performance.