Next week's seminars

[Cond.Matt. & Stat.Mech.Section]

  JOINT ICTP/SISSA STATISTICAL PHYSICS SEMINAR



Tuesday, 13 April   -   11:00 hrs.



Luigi Stasi Seminar Room- ICTP Leonardo Building - 1st floor



Alan J. McKane      (University of Manchester)



"Modified deterministic equations derived from individual-based models"



Abstract



I discuss a systematic approach to the modeling of biological,  
biochemical and related systems which starts from individual-based  
models, and then goes on to derive from these the corresponding  
deterministic equations which are valid when the size of the system is  
large.  The formalism also applies to spatially explicit models, and I  
will compare the governing deterministic equations for these systems  
to those which are normally written down on phenomenological grounds.   
The case of the diffusion of two types of particle, where extra  
nonlinear terms reflect the depletion of resources on which the  
particles rely, will be examined in detail.



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JOINT ICTP/SISSA CONDENSED MATTER SEMINAR



Luigi Stasi Seminar Room -   ICTP Leonardo Building   (first floor)



Wednesday, 14 April -     4:00 p.m.



Filippo DE ANGELIS     ( Universita' di Perugia )


"Dye-sensitized solar cells:  Mechanism, efficiency and open issues"



Abstract



Within today’s global challenge to capture and utilize solar energy  
for a sustainable development on a grand scale, dye sensitized solar  
cells (DSC), represent a particularly promising approach to the direct  
conversion of light into electrical energy at low cost and with high  
efficiency.  In these devices,  a dye sensitizer absorbs the solar  
radiation and transfers the photoexcited  electron to a wide band-gap  
semiconductor electrode consisting of a mesoporous oxide layer  
composed of nanometer-sized particles, while the concomitant hole is  
transferred to the redox electrolyte or to a hole conductor.  
Ruthenium(II) complexes are widely employed as dye sensitizers,  
delivering record efficiencies in DSC.  For further progress, however,  
higher conversion efficiencies need to be achieved.  New sensitizers  
with tailored optical properties and a deeper understanding of the  
interaction between the dye and the TiO2 nanostructured electrode are  
essential.