Colloidal nanocrystals for energy applications
Semiconductors are materials used in a wide ranfe of applications since they are capable of capturing light and allowing us to take advantage of it. In addition, if we reduce its size to the nanometric scale we can activate additional very interesting properties
On October 16, “Technoscience and Energy” took place in Inseec, Lyon (France), a science-industry transfer event between French and Spanish companies and researchers from the energy sector in France. Among the invited speakers was María Bernechea Navarro, ARAID Investigator, at the Institute of Nanoscience and Materials of Aragon at University of Zaragoza-INMA.
In her talk, entitled “COLLOIDAL NANOCRYSTALS FOR ENERGY APPLICATIONS”, María Bernechea showed the development of nanomaterials stabilized in solution (to facilitate working with them), composed of abundant and non-toxic elements, as well as their use in various applications related to clean energy.
“We synthesize colloidal nanosemiconductors that are used for different applications. We mainly use these nanomaterials to harvest solar light and convert it into electrical current (solar cells) or remove pollutants in wastewater (using the materials as photocatalysts). More recently we have started to study the incorporation of these materials on carbon supports to fabricate electrodes that can be used in electrochemical storage devices (batteries or supercapacitors). These nanosemiconductors are fabricated at the NANBIOSIS U9 Synthesis of Nanoparticles Unit of CIBER-BBN and the INMA”, has explained María.
Last October 29, María Bernechea gave also a talk at the Faculty of Sciences of La Coruña entitled, “Colloidal Nano-Semiconductors for solar cells and other applications” that is avalilable in youtube. Dr. Bermechea expressly thanked the access to the ICTS NANBIOSIS for the development of these semiconductors.
Article of reference: Aina, S., Villacampa, B., Bernechea, M., Earth-abundant non-toxic perovskite nanocrystals for solution processed solar cells, Mater. Adv., 2021, 2, 4140 [DOI]
