Cobalt-based nanomaterial catalyzes water splitting
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ocus Vanadium oxide bronze nanowires show unprecedented metal–insulator transition
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esearchers are working to identify materials that could one day replace silicon to make computing faster. Sambandamurthy Ganapathy, Sarbajit Banerjee, and their colleagues at the University of Buffalo have found a vanadium oxide bronze whose unusual electrical properties in nanowire form, including unprecedented metal–insulator transitions, could increase the speed at which information is transferred and stored. In the August 17 online edition of Advanced Functional Materials (DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201201513), the researchers report that they have synthesized single-crystalline β-PbxV2O5 nanowires from vanadium oxide and lead. When exposed to an applied voltage near room temperature, the nanowires transform
Cobalt-based nanomaterial catalyzes water splitting
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fficient storage technologies are required to exploit renewable energy sources such as wind and the sun. One strategy is the conversion of these energies into fuels such as hydrogen, which can be achieved by electrolysis of water—or water splitting—into H2 and O2. A range of approaches have been investigated to achieve this goal. Devices based on proton-exchange membranes have
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causes excitons to be irradiatively recombined, instead of separated and harvested for their current,” said Strano. This happens even though (6,5) and (6,4) SWNTs have very similar bandgaps. Strano acknowledges that this is a “humble advance” in photovoltaic research, because the efficiencies his group has measured to date for the nanocarbon devices are only about 0.1%. However, significant improvements can likely be
made by combining the two nanocarbon materials in ways that maximize the surface area and produce continuous phases. “We see this as a starting point—it expands the tools and the available technologies for the energy engineer to build new kinds of photovoltaic cells,” Strano said. “It carves out a new space in photovoltaic technology.” Tim Palucka
from insulators to metals that more readily conduct electricity. Each of these two states—insulator and metal—could stand for a 0 or 1 in the binary code that computers use to encode information, or for the “on” and “off” states that the machines use to make calculations. “The ability to electrically switch these nanomaterials between the on and off state repeatedly and at faster speeds makes them useful for computing,” said Ganapathy. “Silicon computing technology is running up against some fundamental road blocks, including switching speeds,” said Banerjee. “The voltageinduced phase transition in the material we created provides a way to make that switch at a higher speed.” As with other nanomaterials, the health and environmental impacts of the nanowires would have to be investigated before their widespread use, especially since they contain lead, Banerjee said.
One intriguing characteristic of the material they synthesized is that it only exhibits valuable electrical properties in nanoform.
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