Materials Science and Engineering Ph.D. Dissertation

Abstract

Photocatalysis, has widespread significance in fields ranging from environmental remediation and energy conversion to pharmaceuticals and materials science. The photophysics of these materials governs how they interact with light, absorb photons, generate excited states, and facilitate charge transfer processes. Understanding these processes allows improvements in their efficiency, selectivity, and overall performance for a wide range of applications, such as pollutant degradation, solar energy conversion, and even artificial photosynthesis. This thesis aims to apply different optical spectroscopy techniques to investigate the excited states, energy and electron transfer processes of different photocatalytic systems and materials.