TiO2 Photocatalysis and Solar Cells

Titanium dioxide, a cheap and chemically stable semiconductor, can absorb light and use that energy to drive chemical reactions or generate electricity — a property researchers are working to harness for cleaner fuel production and solar power. Most of the effort centers on two applications: splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using sunlight, and building dye-sensitized solar cells in which molecular dyes anchor to TiO₂ nanostructures to capture light and release electrons. A persistent challenge is that TiO₂ naturally responds only to ultraviolet light, which represents a small fraction of sunlight, so much of the current work involves engineering nanomaterials, surface structures, and sensitizer molecules that extend absorption into the visible spectrum. Understanding exactly how charge carriers move through these nanostructured interfaces — and how to minimize their loss — remains one of the central open problems driving the research forward.

Works

95,344

Total citations

2,509,968

Keywords

PhotocatalysisSolar CellsTitanium DioxideNanomaterialsVisible LightDye-Sensitized