title: An expression for the bridge-mediated electron transfer rate in dye-sensitized solar cells.
abstract: We have derived an expression for the rate of electron transfer between a semiconductor and a redox centre connected to the semiconductor via a molecular bridge. This model is particularly useful to study the charge recombination (CR) process in dye-sensitized solar cells, where the dye is often connected to the semiconductor by a conjugated bridge. This formalism, designed to be coupled with density functional theory electronic structure calculations, can be used to explore the effect of changing the bridge on the rate of interfacial electron transfer. As an example, we have evaluated the CR rate for a series of systems that differ in the bridge length.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, and Centre for Scientific Computing, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK.
authors.forename: Emanuele
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Maggio
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Troisi
keywords: dye-sensitized solar cell; electron transfer; interface; tunnelling