HIGH THROUGHPUT INORGANIC NANOMATERIALS DISCOVERY

Completed

Renewable Energy Sources(Solar Energy)

Basic and strategic applied research

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Metallurgy and Materials)

Not Cross-cutting

Professor X Wang
Inst of Particle Science & Engineering
University of Leeds

Standard

EPSRC

27 November 2006

26 May 2010

42 months

£141,616

Materials sciences

Yorkshire & Humberside

Physical Sciences

Professor X Wang, Inst of Particle Science & Engineering, University of Leeds

Project Contact, AMR Ltd
Project Contact, Faraday: INSIGHT (Chemical Throughput)
Project Contact, Hydrogen Solar Ltd
Project Contact, Coates Lorilleux Ltd
Project Contact, SRI International, USA
Project Contact, Tescom Corporation UK
Project Contact, Thermo Fisher Scientific, USA
Project Contact, Malvern Instruments Ltd

The current advancement of technology very much depends upon the discovery of new materials. It has been known for some time that combinations of elements not largely involving carbon (called inorganic materials) can have important uses in areas from electronics, computing, UV protection in products, to harnessing energy from the sun. In particular, when inorganic particles are very small, typically made of a few hundred atoms (called nanomaterials), they become can have unusual and excitingproperties. The discovery of such "nanomaterials" very much is hampered by our inability to make these materials fast enough and then to be able to test them adequately for their properties.The proposed research seeks to develop a new way of making and discovering inorganic "nanomaterials" using a very fast approach. This project is seeking to discovery better nanomaterials, which can absorb the suns rays (as an free energy source), and use this energy to splitwater into its constituents, hydrogen and oxygen (in a process known as photocatalysis). The hydrogen can then be used for powering cars or devices of the future. Such a process is important to sustain the energy requirements of mankind on this earth when our fossil fuels (e.g. oil) are exhausted

13/03/07