Our group studies photoinduced electron transfer processes and their use in photocatalytic reactions. The projects are divided into three areas:
- Long-Lived Charge Separation: Here, we are interested in finding ways to produce long-lived radicals. One approach is to couple electron transfer with the proton transfer to reduce the rates of radical recombination. This project is specifically useful for the development of efficient solar cells.
- DNA Repair Using Light: In this project, we investigate the mechanism of repair of cyclobutane thimidine dimmers in DNA by an enzyme called DNA photolyase. The key process in this repair is a photoinduced electron transfer from the enzyme to damaged DNA. Understanding the factors that lead to high efficiency of DNA repair can lead to more efficient prevention of skin cancer in humans.
- Photocatalytic Water Oxidation: The goal of this project is to develop a flavin-based chromophore to catalyze oxidation of water to hydroxyl radicals and further oxygen. This research is part of an effort toward achieving photocatalytic water splitting to produce hydrogen fuels.
Our research efforts generally consist of synthetic procedure to make the model compounds. We further investigate the excited state behavior of model compounds using femtosecond optical and mid-IR transient absorption spectroscopy. For more details on specific projects, please follow the links below:
