CH4009 Solid State Chemistry

A recap on solid state materials: bonding, order and morphology of crystals, amorphous solids, fractals.

Defects in solids: intrinsic defects (Frenkel, Schottky), thermodynamics of intrinsic defect formation, extrinsic defects (colour centres, non-stoichiometric compounds), dislocations.

Energy levels and band gaps: Metallic bonding (free electron gas, Bloch waveform), density of states, band theory, Fermi-Dirac distribution.

Vibrations in solids: Quantisation of lattice vibrations, Bose-Einstein distribution, phonon dispersion relation, acoustic and optical phonons.

Conductivity in solids: Metals, semi-conductors and insulators, the Fermi level, temperature dependence of conductivity, intrinsic and extrinsic semiconductors, the p-n junction.

Optical properties of solids: Interband optical processes, photogeneration of charge carriers, electroluminescence from organic and inorganic systems. Semiconductors in photovoltaic devices: The photovoltaic effect, silicon solar cells, dye-sensitised (Graetzel) cells.

A Blackboard (WebCT) course to accompany the lectures is available to all students enrolled on the course. It contains the lecture handouts, relevant papers from the scientific literature and practice questions.