Fine-Tuning Electronic/Semiconductor Properties of an Iso-reticular Metal Organic Framework Series to be Applied in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells
Summary
Research on MOF based dye sensitized (DSC) or MOF sensitized (MSC) solar cells will become a highly demanding area in the world in the future due to high fine-tuning capacity by changing ligand type and metal type, accordingly pore size and architecture in MOFs. This research deals with such an important area related to renewable energy, science and technology and still this type of research is very rare locally and internationally. This is the first attempt to take the advent of rational approaches for the design and synthesis of selected IRMOF-74 compounds to modify materials for solar energy harvesting devices in Sri Lanka and this may usher in a new era in the field of materials science and engineering in the world which can highly enhance the science and technology capacity in Sri Lanka, Further, based on the results of this project, it is possible to write 3 or 4 high quality journal articles to highly recognized and cited journals and that can raise the science and technology image of Sri Lanka to a high level internationally
Objectives
1. Synthesis of 3/4 reported/novel Mg-IRMOF-74 in the series with same pore architecture but different pore sizes by changing the length of the linker ligand.
2. Synthesis of reported/novel IRMOF-74 with the same pore sizes but different metal centers.
3. Characterization of the semiconductor properties, bandgap, conductivity, light absorption properties of each MOF as synthesized.
4. Characterization of the semiconductor properties, bandgap, conductivity, light absorption properties of each MOF by encapsulating different guests in to their matrices.
5. Utilize the most effective MOF systems prepared as the most appropriate counterparts of DSCs such as the semiconductor, sensitizer, combined semiconductor and sensitizer material.