Molecular Strategies for Converting and Storing Solar Energy

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The overarching goal of the Berlinguette program is to develop methods to improve the conversion efficiency of sunlight into electricity and, in turn, into chemical fuels. A major component of this proposal is the design and synthesis of metal chromophores and electrolytes for applications in the dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). The Berlinguette group has played a leading role in the development of cyclometalated ruthenium chromophores for DSSC applications, and this proposal will continue the development of this class of dyestuff. This proposal will also describe strategies to better understand specific processes within the DSSC at a fundamental level, and to better understand the excited-state dynamics of these ruthenium complexes. The Berlinguette group will also explore methods to efficiently extract hydrogen from water through the careful design and study of molecular water oxidation catalysts in solution and tethered to surfaces. This aspect of the proposal will interrogate the reactivities of single-site homogeneous (photo)catalysts, with a particular emphasis on studying proton-coupled electron transfer chemistry. The studies outlined in this proposal will give undergraduate and graduate students extensive training in inorganic synthesis, and physical and computational methods (e.g, NMR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction techniques, electrochemistry, UV-vis and fluorescence spectroscopy, time-dependent density functional theory). Students involved in the solar cell project will also learn how to fabricate and characterize (e.g., IV plots, impedance spectroscopy) advanced solar cells.