Nanotechnology to harness sunlight to create solar fuel
Thứ ba, 09/08/2011 - 19:11
Researchers from the Universities of East Anglia, York, Nottingham and Manchester are using nanotechnology 100,000 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair to try and solve the world’s looming energy crisis.
Scientists are working to build a solar 'nanocell’ that will use the sun’s energy to make green fuels and chemicals for industry.
Researchers from the Universities of East Anglia, York, Nottingham and Manchester are using nanotechnology 100,000 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair to try and solve the world’s looming energy crisis.
The consortium has already found a way to produce hydrogen from water using the 'solar-nano’ device, which has potentially revolutionary applications in the green car market. Now they are looking at how to use the same technology to create alternatives for other fuels and feedstock chemicals, including turning methane into liquid methanol and carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide.
"Our sun provides far more energy than we will ever need, but we use it really inefficiently," said Professor Wendy Flavell, from The University of Manchester’s Photon Science Institute. "To make better use of the fantastic resource we have in our sun, we need to find out how to create solar fuel that can be stored and shipped to where it is needed and used on demand."
The sun holds enough power in one hour to supply the world’s entire energy needs for a year. However, renewable technologies like solar panels cannot store energy from the sun. Flavell and her fellow scientists are researching how to create solar fuel that can overcome this problem.
How it works
At the heart of the project are two types of light-absorber – tiny clusters of semiconducting material that absorb sunlight called 'quantum dots’ and porphyrin molecules, like those involved in photosynthesis.
When sunlight is absorbed, carriers of electric current are created. Together with catalyst molecules grafted to the surfaces of the dots, these create the green fuel.
The scientists are presenting their research at the Royal Society’s annual Summer Science Exhibition which opens today.
Researchers from the Universities of East Anglia, York, Nottingham and Manchester are using nanotechnology 100,000 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair to try and solve the world’s looming energy crisis.
The consortium has already found a way to produce hydrogen from water using the 'solar-nano’ device, which has potentially revolutionary applications in the green car market. Now they are looking at how to use the same technology to create alternatives for other fuels and feedstock chemicals, including turning methane into liquid methanol and carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide.
"Our sun provides far more energy than we will ever need, but we use it really inefficiently," said Professor Wendy Flavell, from The University of Manchester’s Photon Science Institute. "To make better use of the fantastic resource we have in our sun, we need to find out how to create solar fuel that can be stored and shipped to where it is needed and used on demand."
The sun holds enough power in one hour to supply the world’s entire energy needs for a year. However, renewable technologies like solar panels cannot store energy from the sun. Flavell and her fellow scientists are researching how to create solar fuel that can overcome this problem.
How it works
At the heart of the project are two types of light-absorber – tiny clusters of semiconducting material that absorb sunlight called 'quantum dots’ and porphyrin molecules, like those involved in photosynthesis.
When sunlight is absorbed, carriers of electric current are created. Together with catalyst molecules grafted to the surfaces of the dots, these create the green fuel.
The scientists are presenting their research at the Royal Society’s annual Summer Science Exhibition which opens today.
greenwisebusiness.co.uk