Solar Energy Conversion at Dye Sensitized Nanostructured Electrodes Fabricated by Sol-Gel Processing: Final Report

The significant achievements accomplished in this program include: 1) the first demonstration of osmium polypyridyl compounds as sensitizers; 2) the first demonstration of donor-acceptor compounds as sensitizers; 3) the first use of alternative acac-based sensitizer-semiconductor linkages; 4) the first demonstration of 'remote' interfacial electron transfer; 5) the first application of bimetalliccompounds as sensitizers; 6) the first correlation of the interfacial charge recombination rate constant with the open-circuit photovoltage in sensitized materials; 7) the first demonstration of a solid-state dye-sensitized TiO2 cell; 8) an alternative band-edge unpinning model for the nanocrystallineTiO2/electrolyte interface at negative applied potentials; and 9) the first self-consistentmodel of electron transport in dye-sensitized TiO2 films.