Nanoporous Anodic Alumina Photonic Crystals for Sunlight Harvesting Applications: A Perspective

Nanoporous anodic alumina (NAA) fabricated by anodization of aluminum is a versatile platform material with tailorable geometric, optical, and chemical features for specific light-based technologies and applications. Recent advances in anodization technology have enabled a new generation of NAA-based photonic crystals (PCs)—periodic dielectric nanoporous structures that selectively allow, forbid, and confine the flow of incoming electromagnetic waves of specific wavelengths across their structure. NAA–PCs provide exciting new opportunities to engineer light–matter interactions with versatility across the broad spectrum, from UV to IR. But despite these fundamental advances, demonstrations of sunlight-harvesting technologies based on NAA–PCs are still limited. Herein, an up-to-date summary of recent advances in NAA–PC technology is provided, and proof-of-concept demonstrations and future pathways to propel this versatile platform material across sunlight-harvesting technologies such as photocatalysis, photoelectrocatalysis, photothermal energy conversion, and solar cells are discussed.

Subjects

light–matter interactions

nanoporous anodic alumina

photon-to-electron conversion

photonic crystals

sunlight harvesting

surface functionalization

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Nanoporous Anodic Alumina Photonic Crystals for Sunlight Harvesting Applications: A Perspective