Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

1-1-2019

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D. in Chemistry

First Advisor

Jared H. Delcamp

Second Advisor

Walter Cleland

Third Advisor

John M. Rimoldi

School

University of Mississippi

Relational Format

dissertation/thesis

Abstract

With current energy demands being met through the utilization of energy sources such as petroleum, natural gas, and coal, the non-renewable nature of these sources will eventually approach depletion as world wide energy consumption increases yearly. As a result the need for a renewable energy alternative has become imminent. One appealing alternative that has gained considerable attention since its development due to a low cost and a high solar to electric conversion efficiency are dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). This dissertation describes efforts to design and synthesize improved organic dyes utilizing three analogous methods: first, through decreasing non-productive pathways such as electron recombination, second, by promoting productive pathways such as dye regeneration and lastly, by expanding the UV-vis absorption of organic dyes to the near-infrared region (800 nm-1000 nm) of the absorption spectrum in order to utilize lower energy photons.

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