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Understanding interfacial charge injection processes is one of the key factors needed for development of efficient organic electronic devices, such as biosensors and energy conversion systems, since these processes control the electrical characteristics of these devices. Spectroelectrochemical characterization of electron transfer processes occurring at the electrode - electroactive thin film interface has been evaluated to improve our understanding of charge transfer kinetics using a novel form of electroreflectance spectroscopy, potential-modulated attenuated total reflectance (PM-ATR), which makes it possible to sensitively monitor spectroscopic changes in thin films as a function of applied potential.PM-ATR was used to evaluate three different redox-active films deposited on indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes to investigate: i) the orientation dependence of charge transfer rates of thin films of biomolecules, ii) surface treatment and modification effects on charge transfer kinetics of conducting polymers and, iii) estimation of rates of electron injection and conduction band edge of semiconductor nanocrystalline materials.First, Prussian blue film as a model system was used successfully to examine the PM-ATR technique for determination of the charge transfer rate constant between ITO and a molecular film.Second, an anisotropic and redox active protein film, cytochrome c, was used to probe charge transfer rates with respect to molecular orientation. The electron transfer rate measured using TM polarized light was four-fold greater than that measured using TE polarized light. These data are the first to correlate a distribution of molecular orientations with a distribution of electron transfer rates in a redox-active molecular film.Third, the effects of ITO surface treatment and modification on charge transfer kinetics on a conducting polymer, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene/)/poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT/PSS), were studied. The apparent interfacial charge transfer rate constant for PEDOT/PSS on ITO has been reported for the first time which cannot be measured otherwise with conventional electrochemistry due to high non-Faradaic background of PEDOT/PSS films.Fourth, PM-ATR enabled characterization of reversible redox processes between submonolayer coverages of surface-tethered, CdSe nanocrystals and ITO for the first time. Optically determined onset potentials for electron injection were used for estimation for the conduction band and valance band energies (ECB and EVB, respectively).

Solidification from the melt is an essential step in nearly all conventional processes to produce bulk materials for industrial applications. Rapid quenching from the liquid state at cooling rates of 102 to 106K/s or higher has developed into a new technology for processing novel materials. InxGa1 - xSb a ternary III-V compound semiconductor was synthesized by using the rapid spinning cup (RSC) technique. Several compositions of these alloys were batched and cast into ingots in evacuated sealed quartz tubes. These ingots were then melted and ejected onto a rapidly rotating copper disk. This resulted in the generation of flakes or powders depending on the rpm of the disk. Microstructural characterization of the flakes and powders was performed using XRD, SEM and TEM. Efforts were also made to measure the bulk resistivity of the annealed flakes to see the effect of annealing on ordering of the phases.

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