What is nanotechnology? Nanotechnology (sometimes shortened to "nanotech") is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale.

Generally, nanotechnology deals with structures sized between 1 to 100 nanometre in at least one dimension, and involves developing materials or devices possessing at least one dimension within that size. Applications
groundwater treatm ent technology developed at NASA Kennedy Space Center has won NASAs Government Invention of the Year and Commercial Invention of the Year awards for 2005. This marks the second time in three years that KSC inventors have won both awards. The Emulsified Zero-Valent Iron (EZVI) technology was developed by a team of researchers from NASA and the University of Central Florida. NASA inventors include Dr. Jacqueline Quinn, an environmental engineer in the Applied Sciences Division of the Kennedy Applied Technology Directorate, and Kathleen Brooks, an analytical chemist in the centers Materials Science Laboratory of the Center Operations Directorate. Drs. Christian Clausen, Cherie Geiger and Debra Reinhart are co-inventors from the universitys Departments of Chemistry and Civil Environmental Engineering. During the early history of the space program, the ground around Launch Complex 34 (LC-34) at Kennedy Space Center was polluted with chlorinated solvents used to clean Apollo rocket parts. Dense non- aqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs) were left untreated in the ground and contaminated the fresh water sources in the area. A DNAPL is a liquid that is denser than water and does not dissolve or mix easily in water. DNAPLs are a common cause of environm ental contamination at thousands of DOE, DOD, NASA and private industry facilities. The EPA has reported that DNAPLs are present at 60-70 percent of all sites on the Superfund National Priorities List. Current approaches for remediation of DNAPL source areas are either inefficient, slow or costly. In response to this environmental contamination, KSC developed Emulsified Zero-Valent Iron (EZVI) for the in situ treatment of DNAPLs. EZVI shows significant promise as a cost-effective rem ediation technology capable of expediting DNAPL source zone remediation and groundwater cleanup. The EZVI is composed of a food-grade surfactant, biodegradable vegetable oil, water and ZVI particles (either nano- or micro-scale iron), which form emulsion particles that contain the ZVI in water surrounded by an oil-liquid membrane. Since the exterior oil membrane has hydrophobic properties similar to that of DNAPL, the emulsion is miscible with the DNAPL. Encapsulating the ZVI in a hydrophobic membrane protects the nano-scale iron from other groundwater constituents that would otherwise exhaust much of the reducing capacity of the nano-scale iron. DNAPL, especially of the magnitude present at LC-34, is likely to persist in the aquifer for several decades or even centuries. The resulting groundwater contamination and plume also will persist for several decades. The conventional approach to this type of contamination is to use pump-and-treat systems that extract and treat the groundwater above ground. This conventional technology is basically a plume control technology and would have to be implemented as long as groundwater contamination exists. The EZVI application is an innovative in situ technology that will greatly exceed the capabilities of conventional pumpand-treat systems both in time to achieve cleanup and cost avoidance. By encapsulating the reactants in a hydrophobic membrane of oil, the A grout pump is being used to directly inject emulsion behaves like a DNAPL. When placed in the subsurface, it EZVI into columns of emulsion. This technique is attracts the contaminant into the hydrophobic membrane, and the typically used for smaller jobs such as dry reactant then attacks the contaminant and successfully removes the cleaning facilities. DNAPLs. Other technologies inject reactants in water slurries, and since the DNAPLs are hydrophobic, the contaminants reject the treatment remedy and the problem rem ains.

EZVI overcomes the previous understanding that the incorporation of zero-valent metal particles, such as iron particles, into a liquid membrane micelle would lead to passivation of the particle surface with regard to its ability to dehalogenate compounds. Kinetic studies have shown that the dehalogenation rates of zerovalent metal emulsions are very high and, in fact, are much higher than free zerovalent metal particles with regard to the dehalogenation pools of pure DNAPL. A beneficial feature of the zerovalent metal emulsion is that no halogen-containing atoms exit from the micelle during remediation.

EZVI team members (left to right) include Dr. Christian Clausen, Dr. Jacqueline Quinn, Kathleen Brooks, Dr. Debra Reinhart, and Dr. Cherie Geiger.

This technology is one of the few methods available that can treat the DNAPL source. EZVI overcomes the limitations of current DNAPL treatment technologies by providing a method that is quick, effective and cost-competitive. Other benefits of the innovation include direct treatment of the contaminant source; contaminants are not mobilized; produces less toxic and more easily degradable by-products; and it is environmentally safe. The relatively low injection costs and long-term residual remediation activity indicate that EZVI can result in significant operational lifetime cost savings. KSC has signed five nonexclusive licenses with companies wanting to market and further develop EZVI. One company in particular, GeoSyntec, intends to market this innovation to clients across North America, Europe and Australia. Additionally, GeoSyntec also has been awarded funding from the DOD Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP) to enhance the application of this technology through further laboratory and field demonstrations. GeoSyntec completed demonstration testing of the EZVI technology at the Cape Canaveral Air Station Launch Complex 34 (LC-34) under the NASA STTR program in 2002 and 2003. As of April 2006, EZVI has been applied at both government and private industry cleanup sites by the other four licensees in Arkansas, Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina and Illinois. Recipients/technology end-users of the EZVI cleanup technology include government installations, local and state governments and private industry. Cleanup programs across five federal agencies aimed at DNAPL removal are estimated A researcher shows the emulsion in the soil. to exceed $200 billion over the next 75 years (Soil and Groundwater, August/September 1997). EZVI will help to address these problems within the federal government and across private industry. New and continued relationships were established during the field application of the technology with the EPA Superfund Innovative Technology Evaluation Office and with numerous environmental consultants interested in applying the technology to their customers cleanup sites across the United States and other countries. Additionally, a close working relationship was developed with the U.S. Air Force, who chose in 2005 to deploy the largest EZVI injection to date (>62,000 gallons) at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida. Additionally, working relationships with the U.S. Marine Corp and the U.S. Navy are continually developing, as the next EZVI demonstration under the DOD certification program began in May 2006 at Parris Island Marine Training Base, South Carolina. The EPA is again participating in this deployment, with interest in documenting the biological benefit (polishing effects) of the emulsion. The technology transfer recipients for EZVI are far reaching, from United States government installations like the KSC and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to local dry cleaner programs such as the one currently funded by the state of Florida. Private industry is deemed a potentially significant user of the technology, as the government is not the sole owner of chlorinated-solvent groundwater pollution. Within the first year of licensing, EZVI has been deployed at four industrial locations with great success and at three locations within the DOD. For one of the DOD deployments, the estimated cost for the EZVI alone is nearly $1 million. This technology has won the SE Federal Labs Consortium 2005 Excellence in Technology Transfer award, the national Federal Laboratory Consortium Excellence in Technology Transfer Award for 2006, the NASA 2005 Invention of the Year Award and the 2005 NASA Commercial Invention of the Year Award.

Water Pollution

How can nanotechnology be used to reduce water pollution? Nanotechnology is being used to develop solutions to three very different problems in water quality. One challenge is the removal of industrial water pollution, such as a cleaning solvent called TCE, from ground water. Nanoparticles can be used to convert the contaminating chemical through a chemical reaction to make it harmless. Studies have shown that this method can be used successfully to reach contaminates dispersed in underground ponds and at much lower cost than methods which require pumping the water out of the ground for treatment. Another challenge is the removal of salt or metals from water. A deionization method using electrodes composed of nano-sized fibers shows promise for reducing the cost and energy requirements of turning salt water into drinking water. The third problem concerns the fact that standard filters do not work on virus cells. A filter only a few nanometers in diameter is currently being developed that should be capable of removing virus cells from water.

GROUND WATER
Researchers at Pacific Northwestern Laboratory have developed a material to remove mercury from groundwater. The material is called SAMMS, which is short for Self-Assembled Monolayers on Mesoporous Supports. This translates taking a ceramic particle whose surface has many nano-size pores and lining the nanopores with molecules that have sulfur atoms on one end, leaving a hole in the center that is lined with sulfur atoms as shown in figure-SAMMS. They line the nanopores with molecules containing sulfur because it bonds to mercury, so mercury atoms bond to the sulfur and are trapped in the nanopores. Innovations published a series of articles on the subject a few years ago, like "Copper's Role in the Safe Disposal of Radioactive Waste", or "The Swedish Program for Long Term Isolation of High Level Nuclear Waste in Copper Canisters". But spent fuel disposal is only one of the technologies in which copper can play a meaningful role. An article in the October 15, 2001, issue of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN) reports that copper 1 may also help get rid of an equally hazardous form of radwaste: cesium-137. A significant quantity of that isotope was formed as a byproduct during decades of plutonium production at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Hanford Site in Richland, Washington, where it is now found in the more than 50 million gallons of liquid waste stored in 177 underground tanks at the site. Some of those tanks are leaking, allowing the cesium to enter the environment. Cesium-137, or 137 Cs, is particularly nasty because living organisms easily absorb it, mistaking it for harmless potassium. Also, the isotope has a 30.2-year half-life, meaning that hazardous quantities will remain

in the environment for centuries. On the other hand, possibly giving it life-saving uses in radiotherapy.

137

Cs is also an emitter of intense X-rays,

Retrieving Hanford's cesium and making it available in a clinical form would therefore benefit both the environment and medical science. 2 A new copper-based material might make such retrieval possible, thanks to research conducted at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratories (PNNL), another DOE facility in Richland. PNNL researchers have created a highly selective sorbent (C&EN calls it a "super sponge") that rapidly removes almost all cesium from aqueous solution. The sorbent is an organic-inorganic nanocomposite, one of a class of materials known as selfassembled monolayers on mesoporous supports, or SAMMS. Mobil Corporation chemists first produced the materials about 10 years ago, and PNNL and Mobil have been cooperating to perfect the technology. Structural support for the sorbing compounds is provided by a highly porous silica-based ceramic. Mesoporous refers to the structure of the ceramic's internal cavities. The pores are tubular, hexagonally close-packed (see figure below), and extremely tiny (20-200 in diameter), yielding a material with a surface area of approximately 1000 m/g. That, according to C&EN, means five grams of SAMMS powder has a surface area the size of a football field.

One example of a SAMMS nanocomposite. An hexagonally close-packed cluster of tubular pores (end view) is shown in the foreground. A single pore, in this case coated with a mercaptopropylsiloxy monolayer, is shown in the background. A model of one surfactant molcule is also shown. Photo courtesy of C&EN.

To form the sorbent, the pores are lined with monolayers of molecules that bind to the specific pollutant in question. Such molecules have, for example, been designed to sorb mercury, lead, silver and other metals, as well as chromate, arsenate and similar anionic species. And now cesium, which, as earlier studies had shown, can be precipitated as insoluble salts by transition metal ferrocyanide complexes. The PNNL researchers' challenge was to create a form of ferrocyanide that would be efficient, selective and practical to use. SAMMS appears to provide the solution. As reported by C&EN and shown in the figure, below, pores in the ceramic substrate are first coated 2 2 2 with a monolayers of molecules containing the ethylenediamine group NHCH CH NH ). The 2 material is next treated with CuCl , which causes the thylenediamine to wrap around copper(II) ions in groups of three so that six basic nitrogens are coordinated with the metal. The material is then 6 treated with hexacyanoferrate(II), [Fe(CN) ]4-, which binds to the copper via one of the cyano

nitrogens to produce a copper ferrocyanide complex. The result: a cesium sorbent that is immobilized on the insoluble SAMMS silica structure.

Structure of a cesium-specific sorbent on a silica substrate. Copper(II) ions form the critical link to Ce-sorbing ferrocyanides. Photo courtesy of C&EN.

Tests by PNNL showed that when applied to solutions that are similar in concentration to the Hanford wastes, the new SAMMS sorbent reduced cesium concentrations from 2 ppm to 4 ppb within one minute and to 1 ppb within two hours. Moreover, the sorbent was highly selective for cesium at high concentrations of sodium and potassium in both acidic and neutral solutions. Maximum loading was found to be 177 mg of cesium per gram of sorbent. Another benefit: at an estimated $50 per kilogram, the compounds will be relatively inexpensive when produced in commercial-scale quantities. Several challenges remain. SAMMS has not yet been tested with actual nuclear waste or with Cscontaminated groundwater. Also, SAMMS cannot readily tolerate highly alkaline solutions, or environments rich in fluoride. In order to treat the large quantity of waste at Hanford (and possibly groundwater, as well) it would also be beneficial to produce the materials in granular form, rather than the powders studied so far. Once these hurdles are overcome, and assuming that any of several competing sorbents don't prove to be more desirable, copper may again find itself providing a solution to one of the legacies of past nuclear technology.
Cape Town Scientists have reversed the action of the humble herbal tea bag to purify water on a small scale. Instead of infusing water with flavour, a sachet sucks up toxic contamination when fitted into the neck of a water bottle. The researchers, at Stellenbosch University, South Africa, hope communities that have no water-cleaning facilities will use it to purify dirty water. The sachets are made from the same material used to produce the rooibos tea bags that are popular in South Africa. But inside are ultra-thin nanoscale fibres, which filter out contaminants, plus active carbon granules, which kill bacteria. "What is new about this idea is the combination of inexpensive raw materials, namely activated carbon and antimicrobial nanofibres, in point-of-use water filter systems," Marelize Botes, researcher in the university's department of microbiology, told SciDev.Net. A sachet can clean one litre of the most polluted water. Once used, it is thrown away and a new one is inserted into the bottle neck. Although the filter is still in development, tests on river samples around Stellenbosch have been successful, said Botes. "The nanofibres will disintegrate in liquids after a few days and will have no environmental impact. The raw materials of the tea-bag filter are not toxic to humans," she added. Each bag should cost around three South African cents (just under half a US cent). "Anybody can use it anywhere; it's affordable, clean and environmentally friendly," said Jo Burgess, manager of South Africa's Water Research Commission.
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The inventor, Eugene Cloete, dean of the faculty of science at Stellenbosch University and chair of Stellenbosch University's Water Institute, which opened in June, said: "This is a decentralised, point-of-use technology". Shem Wandiga, managing trustee of the Centre for Science and Technology Innovations, in Kenya said: "A technology that supplies clean water at point of use is preferred to technologies that distribute water due to less recontamination.

Relevant Links
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"However, given that the majority of people lacking clean water also have meagre incomes, most living on one dollar a day or less, the technology must be affordable or its cost covered by government. "The major acceptance of the technology by uneducated and untrained person is the proof of the pudding. Sophisticated users will not find difficulty adapting to the technology. Clean water is still a huge challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 300 million people have no access to clean water according to the World Bank. The filter is expected to be on the market before the end of the year if approved by the South African Bureau of Standards, which is currently testing it, said Botes.

Nanowire mesh can absorb up to 20 times its weight in oil

A mat of nanowires with the touch and feel of paper could be an important new tool in the cleanup of oil and other organic pollutants, MIT researchers and colleagues report in the May 30 online issue of Nature Nanotechnology. The scientists say they have created a membrane that can absorb up to 20 times its weight in oil, and can be recycled many times for future use. The oil itself can also be recovered. Some 200,000 tons of oil have already been spilled at sea since the start of the decade. "What we found is that we can make 'paper' from an interwoven mesh of nanowires that is able to selectively absorb hydrophobic liquids--oil-like liquids--from water," said Francesco Stellacci, an associate professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and leader of the work. In addition to its environmental applications, the nanowire paper could also impact filtering and the purification of water, said Jing Kong, an assistant professor of electrical engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and one of Stellacci's colleagues on the work. She noted that it could also be inexpensive to produce because the nanowires of which it is composed can be fabricated in larger quantities than other nanomaterials. Stellacci explained that there are other materials that can absorb oils from water, "but their selectivity is not as high as ours." In other words, conventional materials still absorb some water, making them less efficient at capturing the contaminant. The new material appears to be completely impervious to water. "Our material can be left in water a month or two, and when you take it out it's still dry," Stellacci said. "But at the same time, if that water contains some hydrophobic contaminants, they will get absorbed." Made of potassium manganese oxide, the nanowires are stable at high temperatures. As a result, oil within a loaded membrane can be removed by heating above the boiling point of oil. The oil evaporates, and can be condensed back into a liquid. The membrane--and oil--can be used again.

Two key properties make the system work. First, the nanowires form a spaghetti-like mat with many tiny pores that make for good capillarity, or the ability to absorb liquids. Second, a water-repelling coating keeps water from penetrating into the membrane. Oil, however, isn't affected, and seeps into the membrane. The membrane is created by the same general technique as its low-tech cousin, paper. "We make a suspension of nanowires, like a suspension of cellulose [the key component of paper], dry it on a non-sticking plate, and we get pretty much the same results," Stellacci said. In a commentary accompanying the Nature Nanotechnology paper, Joerg Lahann of the University of Michigan concluded: "Stellacci and co-workers have provided an example of a nanomaterial that has been rationally designed to address a major environmental challenge." In addition to Stellacci and Kong (who is also affiliated with MIT's Microsystems Technology Laboratory and Research Laboratory of Electronics, or RLE), other authors are Jikang Yuan, a postdoctoral associate in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) and RLE; Xiaogang Liu, now at the National University of Singapore; Ozge Akbulut of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering; Junqing Hu of the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan; and Steven L. Suib of the University of Connecticut, Storrs. This work was primarily funded by the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation at MIT.

AIR POLLUTION

Researchers plan to utilize greenhouse gas CO2 with solar energy

In the project Solar2fuel, universities and companies are cooperating in developing alternatives to storage
Utilizing carbon dioxide as an energy source with the aid of sunlight is the goal being pursued in a new research project for recycling of greenhouse gases. Researchers from BASF, Energie Baden-Wrttemberg AG (EnBW), Heidelberg University and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) are seeking to convert CO2 into a fuel for fuel cells or retrofitted internal combustion engines a step towards implementing environmentally conscious mobility technologies and simultaneously an alternative to existing carbon dioxide storage plans. The Verbund project Solar2fuel belongs to the Forum Organic Electronics excellence cluster and is being sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with more than 1 million over two years. While public discussion has so far centered mainly on the underground storage of carbon dioxide, the Solar2fuel project is focusing on the direct utilization of carbon dioxide. In this project, the carbon in carbon dioxide is converted into climate neutral fuels with the aid of sunlight. A photocatalytic process of this nature could open up new ways of generating easyto-handle energy sources, says Prof. Dr. Michael Grunze of the Physical-Chemical Institute of Heidelberg University. The aim is to combine approaches based on nanotechnology and material research with catalytic processes. The scientists at Heidelberg University are cooperating with BASF experts headed by Dr. Jan Schoeneboom to develop an air and light stable combination of dyes and functionalized nanoscale semiconductor particles. Under these conditions, sunlight can be absorbed in the optimal range with the aid of organic dyes and supply energy for the conversion of carbon dioxide. Photocatalysis is therefore used to convert the carbon dioxide generated for example by combustion processes in a power plant together with water into the energy source methanol. In this way, sunlight can be used directly as a regenerative energy source in the recycling of CO2 a process not unlike plant photosynthesis but, the researchers hope, much more efficient. The experts at EnBW are investigating the energy, emission and cost balances of the overall process from the power plant waste gas through the actual photocatalysis up to the utilization of the products. The cost of supplying carbon dioxide from power stations is also being analyzed. With these activities, EnBW is attempting to establish the conditions under which such processes could be economically viable, explains Prof. Dr. Wolfram Mnch, Head of the Research and Innovation Department at EnBW.

The technical engineering aspects of Solar2fuel are being implemented by KIT scientists under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Henning Bockhorn. These experts are investigating the physico-chemical and process technology aspects within the overall process. Based on an analysis of the overall system, the design of a photochemical reactor is to be developed and simulated using computer assisted methods.

A low-cost catalyst prepares to take on power-plant emissions

A research group led by Charles Lyman, professor of materials science and engineering, has developed catalysts that convert the harmful nitrogen oxides emitted from coal- and gas-fired power plants to nitrogen and water vapor.

Unlike other methods of converting nitrogen oxides (NOx), the low-cost nanoparticle-based catalysts developed by Lymans group do not use ammonia.

NOx is a generic term for nitrogen oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). The oxides, which are responsible for smog and acid rain, are produced when nitrogen and oxygen react in the air during combustion, especially at high temperatures.

The use of catalysts for pollution control in power plants is not new. A technique called selective catalytic reduction (SCR) can convert 95 percent of NOx to nitrogen and waterbut with a catch.

Conventional SCR requires another toxic gas, ammonia, to carry out the reduction, says Rick Herman, a senior research scientist who works with Lyman. In addition, these catalysts only perform well at high temperatures.

Finding the best preparation technique

Lyman and Herman sought first to improve the performance of a platinum-rhodium nanoparticle-based catalyst that uses hydrogen, rather than ammonia, as a reducing agent. This catalyst works at much lower temperatures.

Choosing the correct catalyst preparation procedure was critical to ensuring that all these criteria were met, says Paul Dimick, a Ph.D. candidate in chemical engineering working with Lyman.

To obtain the desired microstructure, researchers sequentially impregnated an alumina support with aqueous solutions of platinum and rhodium chlorides. Then they applied a series of thermal treatments to convert the metal chlorides into active bimetallic nanoparticles.

This procedure was chosen so that the desired microstructure would be achieved under reaction conditions, says Dimick.

When the researchers examined the prepared catalysts with Lehighs high-resolution aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope, they found nanoparticles with an average diameter of 2 nanometers (nm) well-dispersed on the alumina support. One nm is one billionth of a meter.

In-situ Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy revealed that the N-O chemical bond in a catalyst containing 5-percent rhodium was broken as soon as the molecule made contact with the nanoparticle. In a catalyst of 10-percent rhodium, however, the NO molecules tended to adhere to clusters of rhodium atoms present on the surface, which could potentially inhibit the desired reaction. Catalyst performance data also showed that the catalyst containing only 5-percent rhodium exhibited a much higher activity.

Cobalts low-cost advantage

Rhodium, however, is rare and expensive. It now trades at around $2,400 per troy ounce after exceeding $10,000 in 2008. To reduce NOx emissions more cheaply, the researchers turned to cobalt, which is 900 times less expensive than rhodium.

Cobalt is also capable of breaking the N-O bond, says Lyman. It forms a solid solution with platinum at low concentrations and finds its way to the surface of a nanoparticle under reaction conditions.

The preparation of cobalt-platinum catalysts is almost identical to that of rhodium-platinum. The researchers merely substituted metal nitrates for chlorides.

While all catalysts containing less than 5-percent cobalt were found to be capable of reducing NOx to nitrogen and water vapor, the 2-percent cobalt catalyst performed best. In-situ FTIR spectroscopy revealed that the 2-percent catalyst was the only one capable of immediately breaking the N-O bond, says Dimick.

The same methodology has now been applied to a nickel-platinum catalyst system with equally promising results.

SOLAR PANEL

Argonne "homegrown" hybrid solar cell aims for low-cost power

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energys (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have refined a technique to manufacture solar cells by creating tubes of semiconducting material and then "growing" polymers directly inside them. The method has the potential to be significantly cheaper than the process used to make todays commercial solar cells. Because the production costs of today's generation of solar cells prevent them from competing economically with fossil fuels, Argonne researchers are working to re-imagine the solar cell's basic design. Most current solar cells use crystalline silicon or cadmium telluride, but growing a high-purity crystal is energy- and labor-intensive, making the cells expensive.

The next generation, called hybrid solar cells, uses a blend of cheaper organic and inorganic materials. To combine these materials effectively, Argonne researchers created a new technique to grow organic polymers directly inside inorganic nanotubes. At its most basic level, solar cell technology relies on a series of processes initiated when photons, or particles of light, strike semiconducting material. When a photon hits the cell, it excites one electron out of its initial state, leaving behind a "hole" of positive charge. Hybrid solar cells contain two separate types of semiconducting material: one conducts electrons, the other holes. At the junction between the two semiconductors, the electron-hole pair gets pulled apart, creating a current.

In the study, Argonne nanoscientist Seth Darling and colleagues at Argonne and the University of Chicago had to rethink the geometry of the two materials. If the two semiconductors are placed too far apart, the electron-hole pair will die in transit. However, if they're packed too closely, the separated charges wont make it out of the cell. In designing an alternative, scientists paired an electron-donating conjugated polymer with the electron acceptor titanium dioxide (TiO2). Titanium dioxide readily forms miniscule tubes just tens of nanometers across10,000 times smaller than a human hair. Rows of tiny, uniform nanotubes sprout across a film of titanium that has been submerged in an electrochemical bath.

An electron microscope image of electrochemically grown TiO2 nanotubes. The next step required the researchers to fill the nanotubes with the organic polymera frustrating process. "Filling nanotubes with polymer is like trying to stuff wet spaghetti into a table full of tiny holes," Darling said. "The polymer ends up bending and twisting, which leads to inefficiencies both because it traps pockets of air as it goes and because twisted polymers dont conduct charges as well.

"In addition, this polymer doesnt like titanium dioxide," Darling added. "So it pulls away from the interface whenever it can." Trying to sidestep this problem, the team hit on the idea of growing the polymer directly inside the tubes. They filled the tubes with a polymer precursor, turned on ultraviolet light, and let the polymers grow within the tubes. Grown this way, the polymer doesnt shy away from the TiO2. In fact, tests suggest the two materials actually mingle at the molecular level; together they are able to capture light at wavelengths inaccessible to either of the two materials alone. This "homegrown" method is potentially much less expensive than the energy-intensive process that produces the silicon crystals used in todays solar cells. These devices dramatically outperform those fabricated by filling the nanotubes with pre-grown polymer, producing about 10 times more electricity from absorbed sunlight. The solar cells produced by this technique, however, do not currently harness as much of the available energy from sunlight as silicon cells can. Darling hopes that further experiments will improve the cells' efficiency

Gold Nanoparticles in Manganese Oxide Cleans VOCs from Air

In addition to nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides, many volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in air contribute to smog and high ozone levels, as well as potentially damaging human health. Clean-air laws are thus rightly continuing to become stricter. Most modern air-purification systems are based on photocatalysts, adsorbents such as activated charcoal, or ozonolysis. However, these classic systems are not particularly good at breaking down organic pollutants at room temperature. Japanese researchers have now developed a new material that very effectively removes VOCs as well as nitrogen- and sulfur oxides from air at room temperature. As they report in the journal Angewandte Chemie, their system involves a highly porous manganese oxide with gold nanoparticles grown into it. To prove the effectiveness of their new catalyst, the research team headed by Anil K. Sinha at the Toyota Central R&D Labs carried out tests with acetaldehyde, toluene, and hexane. These three major components of organic air pollution play a role indoors as well as out. All three of these pollutants were very effectively removed from air and degraded by the catalyst significantly better than with conventional catalyst systems. One secret to the success of this new material is the extremely large inner surface area of the porous manganese oxide, which is higher than all previously known manganese oxide compounds. This large surface area offers the volatile molecules a large number of adsorption sites. Moreover, the adsorbed pollutants are very effectively broken down. There is clearly plenty of oxygen available for oxidation processes within the manganese oxide lattice. Degradation on the surface is highly effective because free radicals are present there. Presumably, oxygen from air dissociates on the gold surface to replace the consumed oxygen atoms in the lattice structure. This process only works if the material is produced in a very specific manner: The gold must be deposited onto the manganese oxide by means of vacuum-UV laser ablation. In this technique, a gold surface is irradiated with a special laser, which dislodges gold particles through evaporation. These gold particles have unusually high energy, which allows them to drive relatively deep into the surface of the manganese oxide. This process is the only way to induce sufficiently strong interactions between the little clumps of gold and the manganese oxide support.

DISADVANTAGES

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