Abstract:
Metal oxide surfaces sensitized with dye molecules are of increasing interest for photocatalysis or photovoltaics. In many of these applications, the dye absorbs light and injects the exited electron into the substrate. The binding configuration is thereby of great importance for the electron transfer process. To simultaneously investigate the binding configuration and its influence on the charge transfer process, scanning probe microscopy and in particular Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy (KPFM) are the methods of choice. In the presentation the adsorption configurations of single porphyrin based molecules, commonly used in photocatalysis, on different single crystal metal oxide surfaces will be discussed.
Bimodal noncontact AFM at room temperature and under UHV was applied to obtain high resolution on the molecules as well as on the substrate. KPFM was used to investigate the electrical dipolemoment of the adsorbed molecules. Finally also measurements at low temperature of a fused donor-acceptor molecule will presented.
Bio:
Thilo Glatzel research focuses on the fundamental understanding of opto-electronic properties of nanometer-scale structures and materials -with a particular emphasis on single molecule characterization- and their application to devices for energy conversion. He studied physics at the Free University of Berlin (FUB), at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and with a Minerva Fellowship of the Max Planck Society at the Tel-Aviv University. He joined the group of Prof. Martha Lux-Steiner at the Department of Solar Energy of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin to do a PhD in condensed matter physics on the implementation of KPFM and the development of chalcopyrite based thin film solar cells.
After receiving his PhD degree from the FUB in 2003 he held research positions at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, at the Yamanashi University as a JSPS fellow, and in the Physics Department of the University of Basel. Since 2005, he is with the force microscopy group of Prof. E. Meyer at the University of Basel.
Hosted by Carmen Ocal, Physical Chemistry of Surfaces and Interfaces
