14040 IUPAC Gold Book - photocarrier 10.1351/goldbook.14040 14040 current 1 Nonequilibrium free electron or free hole generated in a solid by ultraviolet, visible, or infrared absorption and occupying energy levels in the conduction band or the valence band, respectively. Electrons occupying energy levels near the bottom of the conduction band and holes occupying energy levels near the top of the valence band (thermalised carriers) are considered as quasi-chemical intermediates. Nonthermalised (hot) carriers can also be involved in photocatalysed reactions. PAC, 2011, 83, 931. 'Glossary of terms used in photocatalysis and radiation catalysis (IUPAC Recommendations 2011)' on page 966 (https://doi.org/10.1351/PAC-REC-09-09-36) https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/14040/html https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/14040/json https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/14040/plain Citation: 'photocarrier' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.14040 The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms. If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org . The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using. 2026-05-07T00:06:32+00:00