Light Energy Conversion

The Energy Challenge
Clean Energy Alternatives
Exploring Nanotechnology for Solar Energy Conversion
Building a dye-sensitized solar cell (useful for student demonstration)
Research Focus at Notre Dame (pdf) (PPS file-6MB)

Watch "Delicious Solar Cell" made with donuts and tea by Blake Farrow Youtube ACS-Nanotube
A Performance Calculator for Grid-Connected PV Systems
View a PBS-NOVA show "Saved by the Sun"
Solar Energy - Beyond the Hype (Power Point 11 MB) (pdf 5MB)

2007 Annual Research Summary

Review article on a energy conversion topic (ready reference with 350+ citations)
Meeting the Clean Energy Demand: Nanostructure Architectures for Solar Energy Conversion
J. Phys. Chem. C, 111 (7), 2834 -2860, 2007. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jp066952u
(Need a copy? Send an email request to pkamat@nd.edu)

During the last decade the nanomaterials have emerged as the new building blocks to construct light energy harvesting assemblies. Organic and inorganic hybrid structures that exhibit improved selectivity and efficiency towards catalytic processes have been designed. Size dependent properties such as size quantization effects in semiconductor nanoparticles and quantized charging effects in metal nanoparticles provides the basis for developing new and effective systems. These nanostructures provide innovative strategies for designing next generation energy conversion devices. Recent efforts to synthesize nanostructures with well defined geometrical shapes (e.g., solid and hollow spheres, prisms, rods, wires) and their assembly as 2- and 3- dimensional assemblies has further expanded the possibility of developing new strategies for light energy conversion.

There are three major ways that one can utilize nanostructures for the design of solar energy conversion devices. The first one is to mimic the photosynthesis with donor-acceptor molecular assemblies and clusters. The second one is the semiconductor assisted photocatalysis to produce fuels such as hydrogen. The third and most promising category is the nanostructure semiconductor based solar cells. Strategies to employ ordered assemblies of semiconductor and metal nanoparticles, inorganic-organic hybrid assemblies and carbon nanostructures in the energy conversion schemes are currently being explored in our laboratory.

To design heterogeneous assemblies consisting of carbon nanostructures (fullerenes, carbon nanotubes etc) , semiconductor nanostructures, metal particles and sensitizing dyes for harvesting light energy
To elucidate the interfacial charge transfer processes in semiconductor/sensitizer systems.
To improve photoinduced charge separation in donor-acceptor type dyads and triads by binding them to metal nanostructures and/or semiconductor composites
To employ donor-acceptor based supramolecular systems (for example, fullerenes and porphyrins) and molecular clusters for in organic photovoltaic cells.

Robel, I.; Subramanian, V.; Kuno, M.; Kamat, P.V., Quantum Dot Solar Cells. Harvesting Light Energy with CdSe Nanocrystals Molecularly Linked to Mesoscopic TiO₂ Films. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2006. 128, 2385-2393.

Kamat, P. V., Photoelectrochemistry in Particulate Systems. 9. Photosensitized Reduction in a Colloidal Tio2 System Using Anthracene-9-Carboxylic Acid as the Sensitizer. J. Phys. Chem., 1989. 93 859-64.

Bedja, I., S. Hotchandani and P. V. Kamat, Preparation and Characterization of Thin Sno2 Nanocrystalline Semiconductor Films and Their Sensitization with Bis(2,2'-Bipyridine)(2,2'-Bipyridine-4-4'-Dicarboxylic Acid)Ruthenium Complex. J. Phys. Chem., 1994. 98 4133-4140.

Fessenden, R. W. and P. V. Kamat, Rate Constants for Charge Injection from Excited Sensitizer into SnO2, ZnO, and TiO2 Semiconductor Nanocrystallites. J. Phys. Chem., 1995. 99 12902-12906.

Sudeep, P. K., Ipe, B. I., George Thomas, K., George, M. V., Barazzouk, S., Hotchandani, S. and Kamat, P. V., Fullerene Functionalized Gold Nanoparticles. A self assembled Photoactive Antenna-Metal Nanocore Assembly. Nano Lett., 2002, 2, 29-35.
George Thomas, K. and Kamat, P. V., Chromophore Functionalized Gold Nanoparticles. Acc. Chem. Res., 2003, 36, 888-898 (Review Article)

Kamat, P. V., I. Bedja, S. Hotchandani and L. K. Patterson, Photosensitization of Nanocrystalline Semiconductor Films. Modulation of Electron Transfer between Excited Ruthenium Complex and Sno2 Nanocrystallites with an Externally Applied Bias. J. Phys. Chem. B, 1996. 100 4900-4908.

Nasr, C., S. Hotchandani, W. Y. Kim, R. H. Schmehl and P. V. Kamat, Photoelectrochemistry of Composite Semiconductor Thin Films. Photosensitization of SnO2/CdS Coupled Nanocrystallites with a Ruthenium Complex. J. Phys. Chem. B, 1997. 101 7480-7487.

Liu, D., P. V. Kamat, K. George Thomas, K. J. Thomas, S. Das and M. V. George, Picosecond Dynamics of an Ir Sensitive Squaraine Dye. Role of Singlet and Triplet Excited States in the Photosensitization of TiO2 Nanoclusters. J. Chem. Phys., 1997. 106 6404-6410.

Das, S. and P. V. Kamat, Can Dye Aggregates Serve as Light Harvesting Antenna? Triplet-Triplet Energy Transfer between Excited Aggregates and Monomer in Aot/Heptane Solutions. J. Phys. Chem. B, 1999. 103 209-215..

Kamat, P. V., S. Barazzouk, K. George Thomas and S. Hotchandani, Electrodeposition of C60 Clusters on Nanostructured SnO2 Films for Enhanced Photocurrent Generation. J. Phys. Chem. B, 2000. 104 4014-4017.

Kamat, P. V., M. Haria and S. Hotchandani, C60 Cluster as an Electron Shuttle in a Ru(Ii)-Polypyridyl Sensitizer Based Photochemical Solar Cell. J. Phys. Chem. B, 2004. 108 5166-5170.