| Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) and their interfacial electron transfer kinetics have been a subject of intense interests. Within the field many fundamental and applied questions about the structure and optimization still exist. This thesis describes efforts toward answering two questions about DSSCs.; First, the electron injection and back electron transfer (bET) kinetics were explored with femtosecond and nanosecond laser systems. Mechanisms for bET were studied by altering the separation distance between donors and acceptors. A qualitative study of electron injection was conducted for potential application in better understanding of electron transport in multilayered structures.; The second portion of the thesis details with the design of multilayered DSSC. Several components were investigated and evaluated, including semiconductor substrate, sensitizer, linkage composition and redox mediator. The knowledge gained is valuable for potentially better designed multilayered DSSCs. |
