Solar Photochemistry
NREL’s solar photochemistry research focuses on solar photoconversion in molecular, nanoscale, and semiconductor systems to capture, control, and convert high-efficiency solar radiation into electrochemical potential for electricity, chemicals, or fuels.
Main Research Thrusts
Organic and Molecular Semiconductors
Acquiring a fundamental understanding of interfacial photoinduced electron transfer processes at molecular, nanoscale, and organic interfaces.
Quantum-Confined Semiconductors
Seeking to control the optical and electronic properties of quantum-confined semiconductors through doping—coupling of the core electronic structures to surface bound ligands or interactions with plasmotic nanoparticles to direct and transduce energy.
Semiconductor Electrolyte Interfaces
Examining how interfacial chemistry and microenvironments affect the thermodynamics and kinetics of change separation and redox properties at (photo)electrocatalyst-electrolyte interfaces.
Featured Publications
Controlling Electronic Coupling of Acene Chromophores on Quantum Dot Surfaces through Variable-Concentration Ligand Exchange, ACS Nano (2023)
Tuning Counterion Chemistry to Reduce Carrier Localization in Doped Semiconducting Carbon Nanotube Networks, Cell Reports Physical Science (2023)
Charge Concentration Limits the Hydrogen Evolution Rate in Organic Nanoparticle Photocatalysts, Advanced Materials (2023)
Dye-Sensitized Multiple Exciton Generation in Lead Sulfide Quantum Dots, Journal of the American Chemical Society (2022)
Ultrastrong Coupling of Band-Nested Excitons in Few-Layer Molybdenum Disulphide, Advanced Optical Materials (2022)
Pickering Emulsions of Self-Assembled Lead Sulfide Quantum Dots with Janus-Ligand Shells as Nanoreactors for Photocatalytic Reactions, ACS Applied Nano Materials (2022)
Ultrastrong Coupling Leads to Slowed Cooling of Hot Excitons in Few-Layer Transition-Metal Dichalcogenides, The Journal of Physical Chemistry C (2022)
Ternary Sigesn Alloy Nanocrystals Via Nonthermal Plasma Synthesis, Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics (2021)
Carbon Dioxide and Nitrogen Reduction Reactions Using 2d Transition Metal Dichalcogenide (Tmdc) and Carbide/Nitride (Mxene) Catalysts, Energy & Environmental Science (2021)
Exciton–Phonon Coupling and Carrier Relaxation in Pbs Quantum Dots: The Case of Carboxylate Ligands, The Journal of Physical Chemistry C (2021)
Size-Dependent Janus-Ligand Shell Formation on Pbs Quantum Dots, The Journal of Physical Chemistry C (2021)
Pyroelectricity of Lead Sulfide (Pbs) Quantum Dot Films Induced by Janus-Ligand Shells, ACS Nano (2021)
Triplet Excitons in Pentacene Are Intrinsically Difficult to Dissociate via Charge Transfer, Journal of Physical Chemistry C (2021)
Stabilizing the Heavily-Doped and Metallic Phase of MoS2 Monolayers With Surface Functionalization, 2D Materials (2021)
Short and Long-Range Electron Transfer Compete To Determine Free-Charge Yield in Organic Semiconductors, Materials Horizons (2021)
Reconciling the Driving Force and the Barrier to Charge Separation in Donor–Nonfullerene Acceptor Films, ACS Energy Letters (2021)
Interplay Between Microstructure, Defect States, and Mobile Charge Generation in Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Heterojunctions, Nanoscale (2021)
Linking Optical Spectra to Free charges in Donor/Acceptor Heterojunctions: Cross-Correlation of Transient Microwave and Optical Spectroscopy, Materials Horizons (2021)
Mechanisms of Hydrogen Evolution Reaction in Two-Dimensional Nitride MXenes Using In Situ X-Ray Absorption Spectroelectrochemistry, ACS Catalysis (2021)
Suppressing Auger Recombination in Multiply Excited Colloidal Silicon Nanocrystals With Ligand-Induced Hole Traps, The Journal of Physical Chemistry C (2021)
Modulating Donor–Acceptor Transition Energies in Phosphorus–Boron Co-Doped Silicon Nanocrystals via X- and L-type Ligands, Faraday Discussions (2020)
Basal Plane Hydrogen Evolution Activity from Mixed Metal Nitride MXenes Measured by Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy, Adv. Funct. Mater. (2020)
Decoupling Kinetics and Thermodynamics of Interfacial Catalysis at a Chemically Modified Black Silicon Semiconductor Photoelectrode, ACS Energy Lett. (2020)
Measuring Photoexcited Free Charge Carriers in Mono- to Few-Layer Transition-Metal Dichalcogenides with Steady-State Microwave Conductivity, Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters (2020)
Spatial Separation of Triplet Excitons Drives Endothermic Singlet Fission, Nature Chemistry (2020)
Disentangling Oxygen and Water Vapor Effects on Optoelectronic Properties of Monolayer Tungsten Disulfide, Nanoscale (2020)
Hot-Carrier Transfer at Photocatalytic Silicon/Platinum Interfaces, J. Chem. Phys (2020)
Plasmonic Hot Hole Transfer in Gold Nanoparticle-Decorated Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Nanosheets, ACS Photonics (2020)
Unique Interfacial Thermodynamics of Few-Layer 2D MoS2 for (Photo)electrochemical Catalysis, Energy Environ. Sci. (2019)
Energetic Effects of Hybrid Organic/Inorganic Interfacial Architecture on Nanoporous Black Silicon Photoelectrodes, Sustainable Energy & Fuels (2019)
Nonthermal Plasma-Synthesized Phosphorus−Boron Co-Doped Si Nanocrystals: A New Approach to Nontoxic NIR-Emitters, Chem. Mater. (2019)
Electrocatalytic and Optoelectronic Characteristics of the Two-Dimensional Titanium Nitride Ti4N3Tx MXene, ACS Applied Materials & Interface (2019)
Designing Janus Ligand Shells on PbS Quantum Dots using Ligand–Ligand Cooperativity, ACS Nano (2019)
Dynamic Tuning of a Thin Film Electrocatalyst by Tensile Strain, Scientific Reports (2019)
Slow Charge Transfer from Pentacene Triplet States at the Marcus Optimum, Nature Chemistry (2019)
Carbon Nanotube Color Centers in Plasmonic Nanocavities: A Path to Photon Indistinguishability at Telecom Bands, Nano Lett. (2019)
Nanoscale Mapping of Hydrogen Evolution on Metallic and Semiconducting MoS2 Nanosheets, Nanoscale Horizons (2019)
Enhanced Multiple Exciton Generation in PbS|CdS Janus-like Heterostructured Nanocrystals, ACS Nano (2018)
n-type PbSe Quantum Dots via Post-Synthetic Indium Doping, J. Am. Chem. Soc. (2018)
Long-lived Charge Separation at Heterojunctions between Semiconducting SWCNTs and Perylene Diimide Electron Acceptors, J. Phys. Chem. C. (2018)
Tuning and Switching a Plasmonic Quantum Dot “Sandwich” in a Nematic Line Defect, ACS Nano (2018)
Morphological Control of InxGa1–xP Nanocrystals Synthesized in a Nonthermal Plasma, Chemistry of Materials (2018)
Tuning Confinement in Colloidal Silicon Nanocrystals with Saturated Surface Ligands, Nano Letters (2018)
Optical Absorbance Enhancement in PbS QD/Cinnamate Ligand Complexes, Phys. Chem. Lett. (2018)
Efficiency of Charge-Transfer Doping in Organic Semiconductors Probed with Quantitative Microwave and Direct-Current Conductance, Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters (2018)
Publications Database
Browse or search all NREL journal articles, conference papers, and reports about solar photochemistry.
SEARCH DATABASEResearch Staff
Arthur Nozik – Serving as senior research fellow emeritus
Obadiah Reid – Understanding charge separation and transport in molecular semiconductors, global modeling of photochemical reaction dynamics, development and modeling of quantitative microwave conductivity instrumentation
Andrew Ferguson – Employing spectroscopic techniques to probe photogenerated and chemically injected charge carrier dynamics and transport in polymeric and nanocarbon semiconductor systems
Greg Pach – Studying nonthermal plasma synthesis of novel semiconductor nanomaterials for applications in photovoltaics, photochemical processes, and energy storage
Melissa Gish – Ultrafast spectroscopist studying photoinduced dynamics at semiconductor-molecule interfaces
Taylor Aubry – Fabricating and conducting optoelectronic characterization of hybrid semiconductor materials for energy conversion and storage applications; currently focusing on plasmonic enhancement of 2D transition metal dichalcogenides for photocatalysis
Debjit Ghoshal – Synthesizing and manipulating optoelectronic properties of two-dimensional
transition metal dichalcogenides by doping, strain engineering, and coupling with
plasmons
Debjit Ghoshal ORCID ID
YunHui (Lisa) Lin – Spectroscopic characterization of energy transfer processes at
hybrid organic/inorganic interfaces; materials of interest include metal chalcogenide
nanocrystal/organic molecule interfaces and layered 2D hybrid perovskite interfaces
YunHui (Lisa) Lin ORCID ID
Martha Hermosilla Palacios
Marissa Martinez – Using spectroscopic methods to study the structure, electronic, and energetic coupling of carboxylic acid functionalized chromophores on quantum dot thin films
Emily Raulerson – Ultrafast spectroscopist probing the interface between semiconductors
and their environment; studying dynamic processes at electrified interfaces
Emily Raulerson ORCID ID
Aaron Rose – Studying nano-optical control of chemical reactions via plasmonics and polariton strong coupling using time-resolved spectroscopic photoelectrochemical techniques
Simran Saund – Developing hybrid molecular-semiconductor nanocrystal systems for energy-related
photoelectrocatalytic small molecule activation
Simran Saund ORCID ID
Logan Wilder – Studying the (photo)electrocatalytic properties of transition metal
dichalcogenides; working to improve the efficiency of electrosynthesis methods by
controlling the morphology of the electrode/electrolyte interface and by introducing
strain, defect sites, or heteroatoms into electrocatalysts
Logan Wilder ORCID ID, Google Scholar
Joshua Carr (CU-Boulder, Materials Science Engineering Program) – Exploring models for charge transfer of singlet excitons generated from sensitized donors in a small molecule accepting host and how solid-state microstructure affects this through ultrafast optical and microwave spectroscopy
Rao Fei (CU-Boulder, Physics) – Studying strong coupling on 2D materials with optical cavities and plasmonic nanocavities and other light-matter interactions on semiconductors with liquid crystals
Ben Feingold – Analyzing ligand exchange solutions that have interfaced with PbS quantum
dot-coated substrates
Ben Feingold ORCID ID
Alexis Myers (CU-Boulder, Chemistry) – Studying photoinduced charge transfer dynamics in 2D transition metal dichalcogenides for application in the development of novel transition metal dichalcogenides-based heterostructures
Nicholas Pompetti (CU-Boulder, Chemistry) – Synthesizing and investigating, through time-resolved spectroscopy, the behavior of novel acene derivatives in dye-sensitized solar cell architectures
Leo Romanetz (CU-Boulder, Chemistry) – Studying methods for detection of charge transfer
states in donor-acceptor organic semiconductor systems using photoinduced absorption
detected magnetic resonance spectroscopy
Leo Romanetz ORCID ID
U.S. Department of Energy Support
This work is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences, Solar Photochemistry Program.
Contact
Share