the department of mechanical engineering of the hong kong polytechnic university (polyu) recently announced the development of technology that embeds highly conductive nanostructures into semiconductor nanofibers to enhance charge conductivity, according to a report on the school’s website.
polyu announced a new, highly-conductive composite of semiconductor nanofibers and conductive nanostructures. (polyu)
this research was awarded a gold medal with congratulations from the jury at the 45th international exhibition of inventions that was held at the end of march in geneva, switzerland.
researchers applied electrospinning to insert carbon nanotubes, graphene, and other highly conductive materials into semiconductor nanofiber (with diameters as small as 60 nanometers) to produce a composite that removed the issue of electron-hole recombination, which is produced by light or energy and can impair device effectiveness.
the two most prominent applications for this technology would be solar cells and photocatalysts for cleaning air.
for solar energy efficiency and storage, the article explained, “by applying polyu's novel technology, carbon nanotube/graphene is embedded into the tio2component of dssc and perovskite solar cell, boosting an increase of energy conversion from 40-66%. compared to commercially available multi-crystalline silicon solar cell common in the market, with current price at us$0.25 (hk$1.94)/kwh, the cost of dssc with carbon nanotube embedded is 12-32% higher (hk$2.18-2.56); while perovskite solar cell embedded with graphene is 28-40% lower (hk$1.17-1.40).”
about air cleaning processes, the article added, “by applying polyu's novel technology, graphene roll is embedded into tzb composite (which mainly compose of tio2). the novel semiconductor nanofiber so produced has superb conductivity, which provides a graphene superhighway for electrons to transport more quickly to oxide the absorbed pollutants. the technology also significantly increases the novel nano-fiber's surface exposed for light absorption and trapping harmful molecules.”
researchers are confident that this can be applied to a number of other industries thanks to the wide proliferation of semiconductor nanofiber technology.
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