The photosensitive molecule adsorption on titanium dioxide (TiO2) forms the so-called “dye sensitized TiO2” system, a typical organic/oxide heterojunction, which is of great interest in catalysis and energy applications, e.g. dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). Traditionally, the transition metal complex dyes are the focus of the study. However, as the fast development of the organic semiconductors and invention of new pure organic dyes, it is necessary to expand the research horizon to cover these molecules and concrete the fundamental understanding of their basic properties, especially during sensitization.In this work, we focus on two different photosensitive molecules: phthalocyanines and triphenylamine-based dyes. Phthalocyanines are organic semiconductors with symmetric macro aromatic molecular structures. They possess good photoelectrical properties and good thermal and chemical stability, which make them widely used in the organic electronic industries. Triphenylamine-based dyes are new types of pure organic dyes which deliver high efficiency and reduce the cost of DSSC. They can be nominated as one of the strong candidates to substitute the ruthenium complex dyes in DSSC. The researches were carried out using classic surface science techniques on single crystal substrates and under ultrahigh vacuum condition. The photosensitive molecules were deposited by organic molecular beam deposition. The substrate reconstruction and ordering were checked by low energy electron diffraction. The molecular electronic, geometric structures and charge transfer properties were characterized by photoelectron spectroscopy, near edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy and resonant photoelectron spectroscopy (RPES). Scanning tunneling microscopy is used to directly image the molecular adsorption.For phthalocyanines, we select MgPc, ZnPc, FePc and TiOPc, which showed a general charge transfer from molecule to the substrate when adsorbed on rutile TiO2(110) surface with 1×1 and 1×2 reconstructions. This charge transfer can be prevented by modifying the TiO2 surface with pyridine derivatives (4-tert-butyl pyridine (4TBP), 2,2’-bipyridine and 4,4’-bipyridine), and furthermore the energy level alignment at the interface is modified by the surface dipole established by the pyridine molecules. Annealing also plays an important role to control the molecular structure and change the electronic structure together with the charge transfer properties, shown by TiOPc film. Special discussions were done for 4TBP for its ability to shift the substrate band bending by healing the oxygen vacancies, which makes it an important additive in the DSSC electrolyte. For the triphenylamine-based dye (TPAC), the systematic deposition enables the characterization of the coverage dependent changes of molecular electronic and geometric structures. The light polarization dependent charge transfer was revealed by RPES. Furthermore, the iodine doped TPAC on TiO2 were investigated to mimic the electrolyte/dye/TiO2 interface in the real DSSC.The whole work of this thesis aims to provide fundamental understanding of the interaction between photosensitive molecules on TiO2 surfaces at molecular level in the monolayer region, e.g. the formation of interfacial states and the coverage dependent atomic and electronic structures, etc. We explored the potential of the application of new dyes and modified of the existing system by identifying their advantage and disadvantage. The results may benefit the fields of dye syntheses, catalysis researches and designs of organic photovoltaic devices. / QC 20111114

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [97]-102).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1997. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1997. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 87-97).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008. / Committee Chair: Wine, Paul; Committee Member: Huey, Greg; Committee Member: Nenes, Athanasios; Committee Member: Weber, Rodney; Committee Member: Whetten, Robert.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2005. / Morhan Srinivasarao, Committee Member ; CP Wong, Committee Member ; David M. Collard, Committee Chair ; Marcus Weck, Committee Member ; Laren Tolbert, Committee Member.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 181-188).

Orientador: Antônio Carlos Ferreira Seridônio / Resumo: Por meio da equação de Weyl que descreve o bulk de um semimetal de Weyl, inserimos duas impurezas no interior deste semimetal, com o intuito de medir a condutância desse sistema por meio de uma ponta de um microscópio de corrente de tunelamento (STM: scanning tunneling microscope), assim como exploramos teoricamente a influência que o semimetal de Dirac-Weyl causa na estrutura dos orbitais das impurezas. Verificamos que nessas condições apresentadas: (i) é possível resgatar e obter os mesmos resultados publicados por Phys. Rev. B 96, 041112(R) (2017) para um semimetal de Dirac em três dimensões; (ii) ao quebrarmos a simetria de inversão do sistema, ocorre um alargamento dos picos de ressonância, até o ponto que uma impureza deixa de sentir a presença da outra, o que caracteriza um sistema que segue o modelo de Anderson de uma impureza (SIAM: single impurity Anderson model), ao passo que, caso continuemos aumentando o valor deste parâmetro, a estrutura de bandas do material torna-se um metal; (iii) ao quebrarmos a simetria de reversão temporal nas direções dos eixos x e z, ocorre formação de um par de orbitais de ligações π para os estados ligantes e antiligantes, o que significa que os elétrons são excitados de ondas s para ondas p. / Abstract: Through the Weyl equation that describes the bulk of a Weyl semimetal, we inserted two impurities inside this semimetal, in order to measure the conductance of this system by means of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM), as well as we theoretically explore the influence that Dirac-Weyl semimetal causes on the structure of the impurities orbitals. We verified that under these conditions presented: (i) it is possible to retrieve and obtain the same results published by Phys. Rev. B 96, 041112 (R) (2017) for a three-dimensional Dirac Semimetal; (ii) when we break the inversion symmetry of the system, there is a widening of the resonance peaks, to the point that one impurity cannot feel the presence of the other one, which characterizes a single impurity Anderson model (SIAM) system, whereas, if we continue increasing the value of this parameter, the bands structure of the material becomes a metal; (iii) when we break the time reversal symmetry in the x and z-axis directions, a pair of π-bond orbitals forms for the bonding and antibonding states, which means that electrons are excited from s-waves to p-waves. / Mestre

Research on two-dimensional (2D) materials currently occupies a sizeable fraction of the materials science community, which has led to the development of a comprehensive body of knowledge on such layered structures. However, the goal of this thesis is to deepen the understanding of the comparatively unknown heterostructures composed of different stacked layers. First, we utilise linear-scaling density functional theory (LS-DFT) to simulate intricate interfaces between the most promising layered materials, such as transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDC) or black phosphorus (BP) and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). We show that hBN can protect BP from external influences, while also preventing the band-gap reduction in BP stacks, and enabling the use of BP heterostructures as tunnelling field effect transistors. Moreover, our simulations of the electronic structure of TMDC interfaces have reproduced photoemission spectroscopy observations, and have also provided an explanation for the coexistence of commensurate and incommensurate phases within the same crystal. Secondly, we have developed new functionality to be used in the future study of 2D heterostructures, in the form of a linear-response phonon formalism for LS-DFT. As part of its implementation, we have solved multiple implementation and theoretical issues through the use of novel algorithms.