News & Events

Electronic Energy Level Alignment at Dye Sensitized Oxides
Seton Hall > News & Events 

Thursday, February 26, 2009
by: M. Alper Sahiner, Ph.D.

The Department of Physics Research Colloquium will feature Professor Robert Bartynski, director of the Laboratory for Surface Modification at Rutgers University, on Thursday, March 5 at 5 p.m. in the Science and Technology Center Amphitheatre. Bartynski will be speaking on dye-sensitized solar cells.
 
Robert A. Bartynski, Ph.D. is a Professor of Physics at Rutgers University. He obtained his B.S. in Applied and Engineering Physics from Cornell University in 1980 and his Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Pennsylvania in 1986, after which he immediately went to Rutgers as an Assistant Professor. He has published over 70 papers and given 40 invited talks in the past 10 years. His research focuses on experimental determination of the electronic properties of surface, interfaces, ultrathin films and nanostructures. Bartynski has been a Henry Rutgers Research Fellow and is a fellow of the American Physical Society, and a member of the American Vacuum Society, the American Chemical Society, the Materials Research Society, and SPIE.
 
Energy generation using advanced solar cells is one of the promising solutions to the world's energy problem for the future. In dye-sensitized solar cells, a wide band-gap oxide semiconductor is activated by the adsorption of organic dye molecules with an energy gap between the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) - lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) that is in useful portion of the solar spectrum. Moreover, effective charge transfer of photoexcited electrons from the molecule to the substrate depends on the alignment of the LUMO to the substrate conduction band edge. We have used direct and inverse photoemission to measure the occupied and unoccupied electronic states of several dye-related molecules and determine their alignment with the band edges of single crystal and nanostructured TiO2 and ZnO substrates. Results from this work and comparison with experimental and theoretical values from the literature will be discussed.

For more information please contact:
Prof. M. Alper Sahiner
(973) 761-9060
sahineme@shu.edu