Good morning everyone, this is ______.

Today, I am delighted to give a presentation on “Nano

materials in energy generation”. The outlines of this presentation are: _/* Slide 2 is displayed */

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The energy crisis is a broad and complex topic. We don’t observe it unless the price
of fuel or electricity charges rising high. The reason for this is that there is not a
broad understanding of the complex causes and solutions for the energy crisis that
will allow for an effort to happen that will resolve it.

The energy demand may happens due to :

1. Overconsumption
2. demands for fuel and products
3. Wastage of Energy
4. Poor Distribution System
5. Depletion of resources producing energy
Energy plays a key role in the socio-economic, technological and political development of any nation.
Inadequate supply of energy restricts socio-economic activity, limits technological and hence economic
growth and adversely affects the quality of life. In fact, it is widely accepted that there is a strong
correlation between socioeconomic development and energy availability of a given nation.
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The worldwide energy demand is continuously growing and to meet the growing energy
requirements with providing cleaner, cheaper alternatives to fossil fuels. It is intended to
look for alternative resources.

One of the best approach explored in many countries to tackle this energy challenge is
nanotechnology. Nanotechnology helps to improve, even revolutionize, many technology and industry
sectors: information technology, homeland security, medicine, transportation, energy, food safety, and
environmental science, among many others.

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Nanotechnology is the study, design, creation, synthesis, manipulation, and application of functional
materials, devices, and systems through control of matter at the scale of 1-100 nm that is the size of order
10 to the power -9. As a result, many materials start to display unique and sometimes, surprising properties.
For example, 1.silver shows increased anti–microbial properties
2.inert materials like platinum and gold become catalysts, and
3.Stable materials like aluminium become combustible.

NANOTECHNOLOGY is the use of these properties in special products and applications.

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There are two types of approaches for Nano fabrication is materials.
They are:
1.Top down approach:
It is nothing but the cutting away the waste materials to get the required outcome.
2.Bottom up approach:
It is just like basic building blocks, by adding the materials to fabricate the material.
In this process the wastage is less compared to top down approach.

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Sol-Gel process also known as chemical vapour deposition is a wet chemical

technique widely used to prepare Nano materials.
Sol- particles in solid phase can move freely.
Gel- particle in solid phase are fixed with network structure.
The chemistry of the sol-gel process is based on hydrolysis and
polycondensation reactions.

It involves several steps, in the following chronological order: hydrolysis and polycondensation,
gelation, aging, drying, densification, and crystallization.
a precursor is a compound that participates in a chemical reaction that produces another compound.
After hydrolysis and poly condensation ,colloidal particles slowly aggregate after aging of sols to form
3d network structure. It is dried to get the outcome of the material.

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Hydrothermal synthesis is a solution reaction based approach. In a broader sense, it can be

defined as the method for making materials from room temperature to high-temperature
solutions.
In a sealed vessel (bomb, autoclave etc.) solvents can be brought to temperature were above their
boiling points by the increase in autogenous pressure resulting from heating. Performing a chemical
reactions under such condition is referred to as solvothermal synthesis. If the same process is done
with water as solvent is said be hydrothermal processing.
 water at elevated temperatures plays an essential role in the precursor material transformation.
  In the high pressure mode conditions, remarkable synthesis results can be
obtained because the solubility of inorganic materials is generally rising with
pressure. Temperature, water pressure and the time of reaction are, therefore,
the three principle parameters in hydrothermal processing.

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Advantages of Sol-gel :
Starting materials and final material are in homogeneous.
High purity of products.
Cheap and convenient.
Controllable degree of porosity.

Disadvantages:

High cost of materials used.

Organic solvents are harmful to human body.

Advantages of hydrothermal:
1.effective synthetic routes to fabricate the nanomaterial with a
variety of morphologies.
2.growth of large good-quality crystals while maintaining control over
their composition.

Disadvantages:

Requires soluble precursors.

Maintenance of high pressure conditions.
Large amount of solvent waste generated.

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In the area of energy generation, the greatest application of nanotechnology is solar energy
using PV cells. Efficient PV system has a lot of potentials for overcoming the energy supply
challenges in developing countries.

Basically, solar cell is made of silicon based layer called PV cells.

The energy from the sun excites the electrons to flow freely between the cells and this produces
current and is absorbed by the conductor around the cells.
By using Nano coating on the solar cell, due to multiple reflections effective optical path for the
absorption is much larger than the conventional solar cell. And it can absorb 60% more UV & IR
rays than that of normal silicon cell. By using Quantum dot in PV cells efficiency could be
increased. The increased surface area to volume ratio of nanoparticles enhances solar radiation
collection by exposing more conducting surfaces to solar radiation. Structural properties of PV
cells are additionally being modified using nanotechnology.
Quantum dot increases the excitation of the electrons there by, increases generation of the
energy.
Quantum dots (QDs) are tiny semiconductor particles a few nanometres in size,
having optical and electronic properties . When the quantum dots are illuminated by UV light, some of the
electrons receive enough energy to break free from the atoms. This capability allows them to move around
the nanoparticle, creating a conductance band in which electrons are free to move through a material and
conduct electricity.

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Energy conversion in the slide is displayed. Each and every process in the
energy conversion plays a crucial role.
Nanotechnologies provide essential improvement potentials for the development
of both conventional energy sources and renewable energy sources like
geothermal energy, sun, wind, water, tides or biomass.

Nanotechnology is also used in improving the efficiency of windmills. An

epoxy-containing carbon nanotubes is now used to make stronger and lighter
windmill blades resulting longer blades which increase the amount of electricity
generated by such windmills.

It also helps to make geothermal energy more practical by allowing efficient

energy production closer to the surface and at lower temperatures. The heat-
retaining properties of the fluid are also being enhanced with nanoparticles.

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In the area of energy storage, some of the most important energy storage systems are batteries
and capacitors. Carbon nanotubes (CNT) are now being used to replace conventional graphite
electrodes in batteries. These nanomaterials have extraordinary high surface area, good
 electrical conductivity and linear geometry which make their surface areas highly accessible to
battery electrolyte resulting in increased electricity output.

The utilization of Nano technologies for the enhancement of electrical energy stores like
batteries and super-capacitors turns out to be downright promising. Due to the high cell voltage
and the outstanding energy and power density, the lithium-ion technology is regarded as the
most promising variant of electrical energy storage.
In the case of capacitors, millions of nanotubes are used to increase the electrode surface
area and thus the amount of energy that can be held since the storage capacity of capacitors
are proportional to the surface area of the electrode. Storage of solar thermal energy can also
be enhanced by using storage mediums enriched with nanoparticles.

In the field of hydrogen storage, application possibilities of nanotechnologies are mainly

found in the optimization of solid-state storage tanks, which reversibly bind hydrogen chemically
or by adsorption in the storage material and release it again.

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In terms of electrical energy distribution, the drawbacks to the use of the conventional
aluminium conductor steel reinforced transmission wires currently available are the fact that due
to relatively higher resistance, a lot of transmitted energy is lost in the form of heat.

Nanotechnology can help reduce the extreme losses experienced when power is distributed.
The extraordinary electric conductivity of nanoparticles, such as carbon nanotubes, can be
applied in the manufacture of electricity cables and power lines.

Wires containing carbon nanotubes that have significantly higher electrical conductivity than the
wires currently used in the electric transmission grid have been developed.

In transformers, fluid containing nanoparticles could be a more efficient coolant. This could
improve the performance of transformers and possibly lead to use of decreased number of
transformers.

Nanotechnological applications in the field of lighting engineering first and foremost concern the
development and use of energy efficient LED on the basis of inorganic and organic semi
conductor materials. The further development of OLED will also depend on nanotechnological
innovations for the efficient conservation of energy.

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Increased efficiency in energy usage and reduction in unnecessary consumption could also be
enabled by nanotechnology, and contribute to a sustainable energy supply.
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Benefits of Nano-energy:
1. Reduced energy consumption--- by increasing the energy efficiency using Nano-
Technology.
2. Environmentally friendly--- reducing the environmental impact throughout the value chain
of the energy sector.
3. Independent power sources---The use of nanotechnology can reduce the cost of energy
production, distribution and storage, since it has the advantage of reducing the amount of
materials used without compromising the expected power outputs.
4. Facilitate transition to renewables---The application of nanotechnology in the energy
sector could facilitate the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

Applications of Nano technology:

Nano technology has a wide range of applications in our everyday life. It is a multi-
disciplinary technology which can be used in many sectors like,
1. Medical and health care applications
2. Energy
3. Fabrication of materials
4. Electronic devices
5. Chemical synthesis
6. Nano composites
7. IT applications like MRAM -Magnetic Random Access
Memory. It is enabled by using Nano meter scale magnetic
tunnel and can quickly and effectively save data during
a system shutdown or enable resume‐play features.
8. Ultra-high definition displays and televisions.
9. Environmental Remediation
10. Future transportation benefits --Nanoscale sensors
and devices may provide cost-effective continuous
monitoring of the structural integrity and performance of
bridges, tunnels, rails, parking structures, and
pavements over time.

Conclusion:
In conclusion, nanotechnology can play a key role in enhancing the use of
renewable and other energy sources in developing countries. It can be employed to
improve energy generation especially using PV cells. It can also be used to improve
energy storage and electrical energy transmission among other things. Developing
countries need to increase their effort by investing on nanotechnology research as
this could help them to overcome their energy challenges.

Thank you all for giving this amazing opportunity……