Orange-Red Electrogenerated Chemiluminescence Cells Using Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles Annealed at Different Temperatures

Abstract

We investigated an effect of the annealing temperature of titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs) on luminescent performances of solution-based electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) cells. The TiO2 NPs were spin-coated on a fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) cathode as an electron injection layer and then annealed at different temperatures of 250 °C and 450 °C. An orange-red ECL solution was prepared by dissolving a ruthenium complex in propylene carbonate. The ECL cell was fabricated by sandwiching the solution between the FTO anode and the TiO2 NPs-coated FTO cathode and evaluated under direct current (DC) voltages. The 450 °C-annealed cell was found to exhibit significant improvements in the luminance and the lifetime in comparison with the 250 °C-annealed cell.