According to Dr. Wade Adams from Rice University, energy will be the most pressing problem facing humanity in the next 50 years and nanotechnology has potential to solve this issue.
The ability to create devices smaller than 100 nanometers opens many doors for the development of new ways to capture, store, and transfer energy.
Improvements in the precision of nanofabrication technologies are critical to solving many energy related problems that the world is currently facing.
Sulfur–carbon composites with diverse structures have been synthesized and exhibited remarkably improved electrochemical performance than pure sulfur, which is crucial for battery design.
[6][7][8][9] Graphene has great potential in the modification of a sulfur cathode for high performance Li-S batteries, which has been broadly investigated in recent years.
Researchers from Kyoto University have shown that these nano-scale semiconductors can increase efficiency by at least 40%, compared to the regular solar cells.
Inclusion of nanocellulose in those energy‐related devices largely raises the portion of eco‐friendly materials and is very promising in addressing the relevant environmental concerns.
[12] Additionally, 1D nanostructures are capable of increasing charge storage by double layering, and can also be used on supercapacitors because of their fast pseudocapacitive surface redox processes.
2D nanomaterials can also be engineered into porous structures in order to be used for energy storage and catalytic applications by applying facile charge and mass transport.
For example, creating some defects can increase the number of active sites for higher catalytic performance, but side reactions may also happen, which could possibly damage the catalyst's structure.
[14] The Li-ion battery is currently one of the most popular electrochemical energy storage systems and has been widely used in areas from portable electronics to electric vehicles.
[23] Furthermore, nanotechnology could help increase the efficiency of light conversion by utilizing the flexible bandgaps of nanomaterials,[24] or by controlling the directivity and photon escape probability of photovoltaic devices.
[25] Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is one of the most widely investigated metal oxides for use in PV cells in the past few decades because of its low cost, environmental benignity, plentiful polymorphs, good stability, and excellent electronic and optical properties.
One limitation is the wide band gap, making TiO2 only sensitive to ultraviolet (UV) light, which just occupies less than 5% of the solar spectrum.
Cerium oxide nanoparticles have been shown to be very good at catalyzing the decomposition of unburnt hydrocarbons and other small particle emissions due to their high surface area to volume ratio, as well as lowering the pressure within the combustion chamber of engines to increase engine efficiency and curb NOx emissions.
Cerium oxide additives in diesel fuel have been shown to cause lung inflammation and increased bronchial alveolar lavage fluid in rats.
More research needs to be conducted to determine whether the addition of artificial nanoparticles to fuels decreases the net amount of toxic particle emissions due to combustion.
[44] The relatively recent shift toward using nanotechnology with respect to the capture, transfer, and storage of energy has and will continue to have many positive economic impacts on society.
Using nanotechnology, catalysts can be designed through nanofabrication that limit incomplete combustion and thus decrease the amount of carbon monoxide, improving the efficiency of the process.