Matching Items (2)
Filtering by

Clear all filters

152104-Thumbnail Image.png

Application and study of water oxidation catalysts and molecular dyes for solar-fuel production

Description
Developing a system capable of using solar energy to drive the conversion of an abundant and available precursor to fuel would profoundly impact humanity's energy use and thereby the condition of the global ecosystem. Such is the goal of artificial photosynthesis: to convert water to hydrogen using solar radiation as…

Developing a system capable of using solar energy to drive the conversion of an abundant and available precursor to fuel would profoundly impact humanity's energy use and thereby the condition of the global ecosystem. Such is the goal of artificial photosynthesis: to convert water to hydrogen using solar radiation as the sole energy input and ideally do so with the use of low cost, abundant materials. Constructing photoelectrochemical cells incorporating photoanodes structurally reminiscent of those used in dye sensitized photovoltaic solar cells presents one approach to establishing an artificial photosynthetic system. The work presented herein describes the production, integration, and study of water oxidation catalysts, molecular dyes, and metal oxide based photoelectrodes carried out in the pursuit of developing solar water splitting systems.
ContributorsSherman, Benjamin D (Author) / Moore, Thomas (Thesis advisor) / Moore, Ana (Committee member) / Buttry, Daniel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
153756-Thumbnail Image.png

Synthesis and characterization of dyes and benzimidazole-phenols for the study of electron transfer

Description
Converting solar energy into electricity is a reasonable way to ameliorate the current untenable energy situation. One way to harness solar energy is to mimic the mechanisms already present in natural photosynthesis. A key component of many artificial photosynthetic systems is the linker connecting the dye to an electrode. Studying…

Converting solar energy into electricity is a reasonable way to ameliorate the current untenable energy situation. One way to harness solar energy is to mimic the mechanisms already present in natural photosynthesis. A key component of many artificial photosynthetic systems is the linker connecting the dye to an electrode. Studying the associated electron transport process is important for improving linker efficiency. Similarly it is important to be able to control the electron transfer to the dye from a water oxidation catalyst, and to be able to improve the lifetime of the charge separated state. Natural photosynthesis provides a blueprint for this in the tyrosine-histidine pair in photosystem II. In this work, research on these topics is described.
ContributorsTomlin, John Jacob (Author) / Moore, Ana L (Thesis advisor) / Gust, Devens (Committee member) / Kodis, Gerdenis (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015