Semiconductors, photoelectrochemistry

D. W. Bahnemann, iu Proceedings of the Symposium on Semiconductor Photoelectrochemistry, C. Koval, ed.. The Electrochemical Society, luc., Pennington,... 

Pleskov YV, Gurevich YY (1986) Semiconductor Photoelectrochemistry. Consultants Bureau, New York... 

Another example comes from the field of semiconductor photoelectrochemistry. Semiconductors in contact with aqueous solutions can drive chemical reactions when irradiated. This is the basis for the photoelectrochemical etching of semiconductors in the electronic industry and for much research aiming at... 

Pleskov, Yu. V., and Yu. Ya. Gurevich, Semiconductor Photoelectrochemistry, Plenum Press, New York, 1986. 

Salvador P (2001) Semiconductor photoelectrochemistry A kinetic and thermodynamic analysis in the light of... 

In this area, as in semiconductor photoelectrochemistry, we have been able only to set forth major concepts and experimental tools. The chemical issues, which are often fascinating, are explored much more fully in several reviews [86-90]. 

The tremendous amount of research that has been carried out in the two closely related fields of semiconductor photoelectrochemistry and photocatalysis during the past three decades continues to provide fundamental insights and practical applications. Several excellent reviews have appeared during tnis same time period that cover fundamental and general aspects of photoelectrochemistry1 7) and pnotocatalysis.8 14)... 

This review concentrates on John Albery s work in the field of colloidal semiconductor photoelectrochemistry. John s major contributions to this area, as in so many others, have been through his astounding facility for generating useful asymptotic solutions for highly complex kinetic models of electrochemical systems. So as to put John s work in colloidal photoelectrochemistry into context. Sections 9.1-9.3 of this chapter provide a review of the more salient kinetic models of semiconductor photocatalysis developed over the last 20 years or so. Section 9.4 then concentrates on the Alberian view and presents, for the first time, John s model of the chronoamperometric behaviour of colloidal CdS. 

Refs. [i] Ashcroft W, Mermin ND (1976) Solid state physics. Saunders College, Philadelphia [ii] Pleskov YuV, Gurevich YuYa (1986) Semiconductor photoelectrochemistry. Consultants Bureau, New York [Hi] Bube RH (1992) Photoelectronic properties of semiconductors. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [iv] Liith H (1995) Surfaces and interfaces of solid materials. Springer, Berlin... 

In this chapter, I give an account of the historical development of semiconductor photoelectrochemistry and nanostructured photovoltaic devices in Section 1.2, and then Sections 1.3-1.6 provide a brief introduction to the major cell types discussed in the remainder of the book the ETA (extremely thin absorber) cell, organic and hybrid cells, dye-sensitised solar cells (Gratzel cells) and regenerative solar cells. 

Shreve G. A. and Lewis N. S. (1995), An analytical description of the consequences of abandoning the principles of detailed balance and microscopic reversibility in semiconductor photoelectrochemistry , J. Electrochem. Soc. 142, 112-119. 

Peter L.M. (1990a), Dynamic aspects of semiconductor photoelectrochemistry , Chem. Rev. 90, 753-769. 

Research is also under way on the photoproduction of useful chemicals based on semiconductor photoelectrochemistry. Interesting conversions, such as N2 to NH3, H20 to H2, and C02 to reduced products, have been demonstrated, although the efficiencies of these are still much too small to be of practical use at this time. 

An electron hole pair is created in a semiconductor when a photon of sufficient energy is absorbed, resulting in excitation of an electron from the valence band to the conduction band [115]. In the context of semiconductor photoelectrochemistry, it is useful to distinguish between direct and indirect optical transitions. If the top of the valence band and the bottom of the conduction band are both situated at = 0 (A being the electron wave vector), one-step optical processes between delocalised states in the valence and conduction band can occur. The absorption coefficient for direct absorption of photons of energy hv, in a semiconductor with bandgap Eg is given by... 

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