APPLICATIONS OF TECHNOLOGY:
- CO2 Reduction
- Electrolysis
- Ethanol or formate oxidation
- Nitrogen fixation
ADVANTAGES:
- Plasticity
- Effective simplified integration process
- Reduced overpotential for CO2 reduction
ABSTRACT:
A team of Berkeley Lab Researchers led by Peidong Yang has developed a technology for controllably depositing nanoparticle catalysts on an array of vertical nanowires by drop-casting. The result of the invention – an assembly of nanoparticles deposited onto nanowires – is flexible enough to be used for almost any electron-driven catalytic reaction, i.e., electrochemical process.
The technology enables researchers to separately research and optimize nanoparticles and nanowires with confidence that they can be integrated. The location and loading of the nanoparticles is controlled because of the quasi-one-dimensional geometry of the vertical nanowires. The nanowires can be photoactive or can use an external source, so the electrochemical process can be light-driven or electricity/battery-driven.
DEVELOPMENT STAGE: Proven principle.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Qiao Kong et al., Directed Assembly of Nanoparticle Catalysts on Nanowire Photoelectrodes for Photoelectrochemical CO2 Reduction, Nano Lett., 2016, 16 (9), pp 5675–5680
STATUS: Patent pending. Available for licensing or collaborative research.