This thesis describes fundamental photophysical studies of quantum dot (QD)-molecule complexes, aimed at discovering strategies for enhancing the efficiency of QD-photocatalyzed and QD-sensitized multi-electron catalytic reactions, for the purpose of solar fuels production. Photosensitization of molecular catalysts that are active for reactions such as the reduction of carbon dioxide or...
This dissertation develops computational models to study the optical coupling between plasmonic nanoparticles and quantum emitters. A large number of nanophotonic applications function by using either plasmon enhanced fields to enhance optical processes within quantum emitters or the sensitivity of plasmon resonances to their environment. Developing computational methods to fully...
This dissertation describes the fundamental studies of photoinduced charge-carrier transfer from colloidal metal chalcogenide quantum dots (QDs) to surface-adsorbed molecular redox partners. In addition, we also present the use of visible-light absorbing QDs in photocatalytic applications. CdS QDs are used as photocatalysts in a C-C coupling reaction, in which no...