Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 January 2016
We here report the fabrication of high-quality nanostructured electrodes based on surfactant-capped ITO colloidal nanocrystals and their implementation in self-powered bi-functional smart devices which are simultaneously capable of generating electric energy as a photovoltaic system as well as of controlling the intensity of incoming thermal radiation by means of a smart variation of their optical transmittance. A reversible modulation of the solar transmittance in the NIR range higher than 60% has been experimentally demonstrated.