The main focus of this research project is to rationally design and study self-assembled porphyrin-, fullerene-, and carbon nanotube-bearing supra-molecular complexes and nano structures that are essential for understanding the fundamentals of photoinduced energy and electron transfer reactions, as well as for developing optoelectronic devices. The principal aim of these efforts is to provide information on the distance and orientation dependences of charge- separation and charge-recombination in donor-acceptor conjugates, and in addition to this, to develop materials with longer-lived and more useful excited states.
The broader impacts of the proposed supramolecular architectures and their study include diverse applications in materials chemistry, especially for building devices for light energy harvesting, and optoelectronics applications. Professor D'Souza is developing nanotech strategies for light energy harvesting. Such self-assembled constructions are beginning to obtain the same capabilities as natural photosynthetic systems. Such devices based on this type of chemistry facilitate energy strategies that are alternatives to dependence on oil. The work involves B3L VP/3-21G* (small basis set, hybrid density functional theory) calculations and integrates collaborative research efforts with scientists from national and international laboratories, The proposed research also provides extensive teaching and training of graduate, post-doctoral, undergraduate and women students (including NSF-REU students) involved in the interdisciplinary research program. Development of novel energy sources other than those based on fossil fuels or nuclear energy is a research topic that is of considerable scientific and societal importance.
