Nanomaterials

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), while only having been designed about twenty years ago, are considered to be one of the most promising third-generation solar cell technologies among experts. One of the key features of DSSCs is a mesoporous, 10 micron layer of titania nanoparticles which acts as...

Ordered mesoporous Zr-doped TiO 2 /ZnO material is currently being investigated for band gap tuning and higher loadings of photo-sensitizer. Utilization of such mesoporous materials thereby offers an opportunity to sensitize semiconductor with higher sensitizer loadings leading to effective charge...

Here we propose to develop a farm-scale biorefining system that can convert cellulosic biomass into useable hydrogen gas. In particular, we focus on the development of cost-effective procedures for biomass pretreatment and catalysts for alkaline hydrothermal treatment, which is less studied as...

The tunable optoelectronic properties of semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs) have garnered significant attention for photovoltaic device integration. Additionally, solution processing of semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs) provides a low-cost, scalable technique for the fabrication of third-generation...

Solar energy is clean, abundant, and renewable, yet it is vastly under-utilized in the current world. Although crystalline silicon solar cells are the premier candidate for renewable and environmentally friendly solar energy conversion, high manufacturing cost has prevented such cells from...

The lithium (Li) adsorption mechanism on the metallic (5,5) single wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT)-fullerene (C 60 ) hybrid material system is investigated using first-principles method. It is found that the Li adsorption energy (-2.649 eV) on the CNT-C 60 hybrid system is lower than that on the...