Chemists at the University of Buffalo, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Rochester, developed a new class of photosensitizing dyes that can efficiently harness solar energy to produce electricity and hydrogen fuel.
The dyes, called chalcogenorhodamine dyes, can increase the efficiency of light-driven systems that generate solar electricity and produce hydrogen fuel.
The dyes can be used as part of a dye-sensitized solar cell. When sunlight hits the dyes, the energy knocks lose electrons that travel through the solar cell, producing electrical current.
Hydrogen fuel production also undergoes a similar technique. Sunlight will also free electrons after striking the dyes. The electrons would then flow into a catalyst, where they drive a chemical reaction that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen.
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This process would yield exceptional results because the chalcogenorhodamine dyes can absorb light more intensely and transfer electrons more efficiently than conventional dyes.
Further studies show the new dyes worked most efficiently in a hydrogen production systems that use cobalt or platinum deposited on titanium dioxide as catalysts.
«Plants use sunlight to make their own fuels. Humans don’t. We use oil. So if we want to have energy independence, it will come from solar,» said Michael Detty, a professor from the University of Buffalo and leader of the research team.
The university received a notice of allowance from the United States Patent and Trademark Office approving the issue of a patent to cover the composition of the dye. The team also filed a separate patent application to protect the dyes’ use in hydrogen evolution.
The university’s Office of Science, Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach handles the licensing of the dyes. The team’s findings were published in the October 2010 issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
