Doctoral Fellow at Center for Photochemical Sciences
Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403
e-mail: yalisun@bgsu.edu
Currently, I have two projects and both of them are related to solar energy conversion. One is from light to electricity and the other is from light to H2, a very neat fuel.
The First project is New RuII dye sensitizers with enhanced absorption properties and broadened spectral response. The research focuses on design, synthesizing and characterization of conjugated bipyridine, phenanthroline, and terpyridine ligands and their associated heteroleptic Ru(II) metal complexes. Additionally, TiO2 films and dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) anchoring the newly synthesized RuII dye sensitizers are fabricated, and critical operational device parameters are evaluated under a variety of conditions. In addition, the factors affecting photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitized solar cells are to be understood by investigating the photophysical and electrochemical properties of the new structures.The second project is photocatalytic hydrogen production via the reduction of water. The research focus is investigating the homogeneous systems for H2 producing by splitting of water with the aid of transition metal complexes. The photoinduced H2 evolving reactions are to be evaluated using steady-state photolysis, quantitatively monitoring H2 production as a function of time using water-trap measurement or gas chromatography Finally, the best system will be dye-sensitized to visible and near-IR light using a variety of Ru(II) complexes and mechanistic studies in homogeneous solution will be initiated directed towards obtaining insight on hydrogen-evolving processes in these transition metal catalysts.
