The electrical conductivity of a series of zeolites varying the charge balancing cation, the crystal structure, and the water content has been measured. The current intensity versus voltage profiles of cells constructed with a conductive glass indium tin oxide anode, an aluminum cathode, and a 50 μm zeolite layer were highly reproducible. Typically, zeolites exhibit a semiconductor profile, dramatically increasing the electrical conductivity from the initial insulator regime to a conductive regime at breaking voltages between 3.5 and 5 V. By adsorbing on the external surface ruthenium trisbipyridyl, we have assessed that the global electrical conductivity of the zeolite films depends on both the external and internal parameters of the zeolite. The fact that the overall electrical conductivity has a component due to the intraparticle conductivity is relevant in the context of developing applications for zeolite-encapsulated guests in nanotechnology.

A 9,10-diarylanthracene derivative having two terminal trimethoxysilyl groups has been synthesized and used in combination with tetraethyl orthosilicate as a silicon source for the preparation of two periodic mesoporous silicas with MCM-41 and SBA-15 structures having about 15 wt % of the organic component. The resulting solids exhibit electrochemiluminescence arising from the organic moieties. The benefit for the electrochemiluminescence activity of having a large surface area solid with periodic porous structure is revealed by the fact that an analogous amorphous material prepared with the same precursor does not exhibit any measurable electrochemiluminescence activity under the same conditions.

A conducting polymer synthesized inside the micropores of Y zeolite exhibits electrochemiluminescence whose intensity can be modulated by the nature of the charge-balancing cations and the presence of coadsorbed hole or electron transport dopants