TiO2 Photocatalysis and Solar Cells

Titanium dioxide is a cheap, stable, and non-toxic semiconductor that absorbs ultraviolet light and can drive chemical reactions — including splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen or breaking down pollutants — making it one of the most studied materials in renewable energy research. When engineered at the nanoscale, its surface area expands dramatically, and researchers have learned to extend its light absorption into the visible spectrum by pairing it with molecular dyes or other sensitizers, a strategy central to dye-sensitized solar cells. The core challenge driving much of the current work is closing the efficiency gap between laboratory demonstrations and practical devices, which requires a precise understanding of how electrons move across the interface between the dye, the titanium dioxide nanostructure, and the surrounding electrolyte. Designing sensitizers that capture a broad swath of the solar spectrum — so-called panchromatic sensitizers — while remaining stable under prolonged illumination is one of the field's most active and consequential open problems.

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Keywords

PhotocatalysisSolar CellsTitanium DioxideNanomaterialsVisible LightDye-Sensitized