Conducting ITO Nanoparticle-Based Aerogels-Nonaqueous One-Pot Synthesis vs. Particle Assembly Routes

Indium tin oxide (ITO) aerogels offer a combination of high surface area, porosity and conductive properties and could therefore be a promising material for electrodes in the fields of batteries, solar cells and fuel cells, as well as for optoelectronic applications. In this study, ITO aerogels were synthesized via two different approaches, followed by critical point drying (CPD) with liquid CO₂. During the nonaqueous one-pot sol-gel synthesis in benzylamine (BnNH₂), the ITO nanoparticles arranged to form a gel, which could be directly processed into an aerogel via solvent exchange, followed by CPD. Alternatively, for the analogous nonaqueous sol-gel synthesis in benzyl alcohol (BnOH), ITO nanoparticles were obtained and assembled into macroscopic aerogels with centimeter dimensions by controlled destabilization of a concentrated dispersion and CPD. As-synthesized ITO aerogels showed low electrical conductivities, but an improvement of two to three orders of magnitude was achieved by annealing, resulting in an electrical resistivity of 64.5-1.6 kΩ·cm. Annealing in a N₂ atmosphere led to an even lower resistivity of 0.2-0.6 kΩ·cm. Concurrently, the BET surface area decreased from 106.2 to 55.6 m²/g with increasing annealing temperature. In essence, both synthesis strategies resulted in aerogels with attractive properties, showing great potential for many applications in energy storage and for optoelectronic devices.