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2011 Spring Meeting
2011 Spring Meeting | Spring 11 U: Nano energy - energy transduction at the nanoscale for energy conversion devices |
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In the field of energy, the magnitude of the challenge is so immense that existing energy approaches—even with improvements from advanced engineering and improved technology based on known concepts—will not be enough to secure our energy future. Instead, meeting the challenge will require new technologies for producing, storing and using energy with performance and efficiency levels far beyond what is now possible. Such technologies must be based on scientific breakthroughs in new materials and chemical processes that govern the transfer of energy between light, electricity and chemical fuels at the nano scale level. To create needed breakthroughs, the present challenges require the integration of basic energy research taking knowledge of the nanomaterial performances with the control of the energy transfer mechanisms at this level together with appropriate technology and engineering to accelerate bringing new energy solutions to society. Scope: The advanced energy technologies require new materials with higher levels of functionality and performance as well as the capacity for controlling chemical and/or electrical changes that operate on these materials. Converting sunlight to electricity with double or triple today’s efficiency; storing electricity in batteries, super capacitors, solid electrolyser systems or under chemicals at ten times today’s densities; operating coal-fired and power plants at far higher temperatures and efficiencies; converting thermal energy to electricity with optimized efficiencies; using reliable solid oxide fuel cells at lower temperature based on new nanoionic concepts; applying new catalyst products for bioenergy efficiency improving or introducing new photo catalysis processes for direct reducing H2O or CO2 molecules requires tailored nanoscale structures with new specific functionalities. At the nanoscale, the fundamental elements of energy (e.g., photon, electron, phonon, excited chemical states, etc.) are essential components in all of the mechanisms taking place and determining material capabilities and functionalities for converting and storing energy devices. Therefore, their understanding becomes important and their control is outstanding for overcoming the present energy challenges. For fulfilling these requirements such high performing materials would have complexity far higher than today’s energy materials and they would be able to straightforward control the flow of energy between chemical bonds, electrons, and light, and would be the foundation of the alternative energy technologies of the future. Creating these advanced materials and chemical processes requires new synthesis processes characterizing the structure and dynamics of matter at levels beyond our present reach. It means improved nanometrology methodologies to achieving and controlling it. The physical and chemical phenomena that capture, store and release energy take place at the nanoscale, often involving subtle changes in single electrons or atoms, on timescales faster than we can now resolve. Penetrating the secrets of energy transformation between light, chemical bonds, and electrons requires new observational tools capable of probing the still-hidden realms of the ultra small and ultrafast. Observing the dynamics of energy flow in electronic and molecular systems at these resolutions is necessary if we are to learn to control their behaviour. Only developing these elements, we can imagine, and achieve, revolutionary new energy systems. Likewise, fundamental understanding of complex materials and chemical change based on theory, computation and advanced simulation is also essential to creating these new energy technologies. These advances–high-performance materials enabling precise control of chemical change, characterization tools probing the ultrafast and the ultra small, and new understanding based on advanced theory and simulation –are the agents for moving beyond incremental improvements and creating a truly secure and sustainable energy future. This symposium will focus on the synthesis, processing, characterization, and modelling of nanostructured materials and their potential use as "nanoscale building blocks" for photon, phonon and chemical transduction to electrical signal and vice versa for energy management. Nanoscale structures can dramatically alter surface reaction rates and electrical transport, resulting in improvements in the processes and transduction mechanisms concerning energy storage, conversion, and generation. This symposium will focus on the structure-property relationship of nanomaterial surfaces and properties. Especial emphasis will be devoted on the ability to design and control the structure of the nanocrystal surface. Successful design of nanoscale materials, -nanoparticles, nanowires and nanotubes, and related alternative nanostructured materials- could lead to a wide range of novel devices and technologies useful and essential for the new generation of alternative energy devices. This symposium aims also to discuss the most recent and relevant results pertaining to electrochemical, catalytic and photocatalytic properties of nanomaterials, as well as their application to alternative energy devices. Likewise, it will address the relations among synthesis, structures, physics-chemical properties of nanoscale materials, interaction with photons, phonon, and chemicals at nano scale level studied using experiments and/or modelling. The focus will be on new phenomena observed in nanostructured materials when the characteristic length scales (such as grain size or layer thickness) approach nanometer dimensions. Hot topics to be covered by the symposium:
Tentative list of proposed speakers/talks (subject to changes):
Symposium organizers:
J.R.Morante
Arnulf Jaeger-Waldau
Enrico Traversa
Harry L. Tuller
Lijun Jiang |
Symposium_U_Program 
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