Document Type

Grant

Publication Date

9-1-2013

Department

Chemistry

Abstract

Solar power is currently becoming a popular and viable source of energy in the world, but current photovoltaic cells have limitations that need to be overcome before becoming the main source of energy. A current objective is to produce cheap, efficient solar cells by incorporating highly absorbing semiconductor nanoparticles (NPs) into the solar cell medium. In order for the NPs to prove effective in a solar cell, we must understand and tune the surface ligands on the NPs to maximize charge carrier transfer into the solar cell medium. The goal of this research is to fully characterize multiple ligand-PbS nanoparticle combinations and prove the ease and processing capability of ligand exchange reactions. In this experiment, various ligands were exchanged onto lead sulfide-oleic acid nanoparticles (PbS-OLA) using a biphasic ligand exchange reaction, a method which shows signs of easily attaching nanoparticle ligands. A variety of thiol ligands such as propanethiol (PT), hexanethiol (HT), and toluenethiol (TT) were investigated. When attached, analysis was run on the PbSligand combinations. Proton NMR spectra have shown successful ligand exchange for hexanethiol and toluenethiol to afford PbS-HT and PbSTT respectively.

Content Notes

Poster, Final Report Form

Unique Identifier

gspstugrants_2014_Schams_Andrew.pdf

First Advisor

Jennifer Zemke

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.