INTERFACIAL CHARGE-TRANSFER PROCESSES IN COLLOIDAL SEMICONDUCTOR SYSTEMS

Kinetic study of interfacial charge transfer processes in colloidal se miconductor systems is not only essential to better understand the pho tocatalytic properties of these systems but also important for designi ng microheterogeneous assemblies to carry out efficient artificial pho tosynthesis. Heterogeneous electron transfer at the semiconductor inte rface is greatly influenced by parameters such as electrostatic effect s, surface charge, site-specific interactions, band energies of the se miconductor and redox potential of the electron acceptor/donor molecul e. An effort has been made in this review to address the factors that control the interfacial electron transfer and various kinetic models e mployed for understanding the photoinduced charge transfer processes i n colloidal semiconductor systems.