Dye-sensitized solar cells
Michael Grätzel and Brian O’Regan have famously demonstrated that a practical high light harvesting efficiency photo-electrochemical device can be fabricated by using a dye to sensitize a nano-crystalline semiconductor. However, even after more than a decade of research into the dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) there are still some fundamental processes of the physics and chemistry that are unknown.
The dye used in the DSC plays a key role in its operation. We are interested in the structure and property relationships of various different dyes and how this affects the kinetics and mechanisms of electron transfer in the DSC and ultimately its efficiency.
This project involves a range of experimental tools including photocrystallography and UV/vis and X-ray absorption spectroscopy.
Selected publications
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Molecular origins of optoelectronic properties in coumarin dyes: toward designer solar cell and laser applications
The journal of physical chemistry A 2012, 116, 1, 727-37
