Chemical Control of Recombination at Semiconductor Interfaces

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This project, supported in the Analytical and Surface Chemistry Program, focusses on characterizing semiconductor/liquid interfaces created at silicon surfaces by covalently attaching moieties directly to silicon without an intervening oxide bridge. Professor Nathan S. Lewis and his students of the Department of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology will employ voltammetric, microwave conductivity, and differential capacitance methods to characterize the electron transfer and photochemical properties of these interfaces that are not complicated by the presence of an oxide bridge. This project aims to understand the fundamentals of how electron transfer can be controlled at these modified silicon semiconductor/liquid interfaces. Silicon is the fundamental building block for constructing semiconductor devices. Despite its common use for such applications its electron transfer properties remain poorly understood. This research group, led by Professor Nathan S. Lewis at the California Institute of Technology, is making seminal contributions to the understanding of the properties of semiconductor/liquid interfaces such as the dependence of electron transfer rate on distance. This project uses unique chemistry to assess such properties of the semiconductor/liquid interface. The utility of this project lies in its potential for many practical applications in solar energy conversion.