MORE SCI-FI-TEK
$900,000 awarded to optimize graphene energy harvesting devices
The WoodNext Foundation's commitment to U of A physicist Paul Thibado will be used to develop sensor systems compatible with six different power sources.
Grant and Award AnnouncementIMAGE:
PAUL THIBADO
view moreCREDIT: UNIVERSITY RELATIONS
U of A physics professor Paul Thibado received a commitment of $904,000 from the WoodNext Foundation, administered by the Greater Houston Community Foundation. The five-year grant will support Thibado’s development of graphene energy harvesters.
“We have successfully developed a process for building graphene energy harvesting device structures,” Thibado said, “but current structures do not harvest enough power. This proposal will allow us to optimize these structures to harvest nanowatts of power, which is enough energy to run sensors.”
Thibado and his colleagues will develop graphene energy harvesting (or GEH) technology for the following sources of power: solar, thermal, acoustic, kinetic, nonlinear and ambient radiation. As each device is developed, his team will then build a full prototype sensor system around that specific power source.
Nancy Chan, executive director of the WoodNext Foundation, said, “We’re excited to support Paul’s work. We think it’s an important step in the development of more clean energy options, as well as a potentially exciting advance in building the internet of things.”
Thibado noted that current state-of-the-art sensor technology is powered by batteries that require microwatts (a millionth of a watt) of continuous power. The goal of his project is twofold:
- Reduce sensor power demand to nanowatts (a billionth of a watt) and
- Power these sensors using energy harvested from the local environment.
Notably, these systems will not include batteries, which have a limited lifespan, allowing them to achieve exceptionally long operational lifetimes — potentially several decades.
“Mass use of this technology will further expand the internet of things,” Thibado explained, “which transforms ordinary sensors into smart nodes within an intelligent network. Thus, our systems will impact a wide range of applications.”
How wide? Thibado envisions these sensors being used in transportation product tracking, logistic fleet management, livestock tracking, soil sensors, agricultural climate monitoring, environmental flood alerts, disaster planning, atmospheric monitoring, predictive maintenance, manufacturing process monitoring, utility smart meters/grids, city smart parking, traffic control, city lighting, waste management, bike/scooter management, camera systems, building alarm systems, temperature control, lighting, access, wearable fitness monitoring, child tracking and medical tracking. So, pretty wide.
The installation cost of GEHs is expected to be competitive with other forms of energy supply, both large and small scale. However, GEH’s operational cost will be near zero with no costs for fuel, charging, replacement or overhaul. For example, a GEH chip could be placed in a remote temperature sensor. This chip, a component of its electronic module, will free the device from the need for external power or batteries. The chip will not require replacement, as it has the same life as other components of the device. With GEH technology, the device can be more compact, portable and safeguarded from power failure.
Additional Collaborators
A subaward of $210,000 will go to David Blaauw, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan. An expert in low-power wireless sensors and embedded systems, Blaauw will oversee fabrication of “Michigan Micro-Mote” sensors custom designed for seamless integration with each type of U of A graphene power harvester.
Blaauw will fine tune the power consumption and duty cycle of the various sensors to align with the power supplied by the U of A harvester. He will also implement a capacitive energy averaging method to support brief periods of higher power consumption.
NTS Innovations, a company specializing in nanotechnology, owns the exclusive license to develop GEH into commercial products. The company has provided funding for patenting, creating business plans, finding business partners and customer discovery.
NTS Innovations’ role over the course of the grant is to engage with customers on acceptance criteria, such as the minimum power levels needed for inclusion in products. Currently, more than 60 parties have expressed interest in testing the technology and working with Thibado and his colleagues to integrate it into their applications.
Thibado thinks his team, in cooperation with NTS Innovations, will be able to send a first-generation self-powered GEH sensor to interested customers for feedback as early as the second year of the award.
Graphene and GEHs
Discovered in 2004, graphene is a one-atom-thick sheet of graphite. Freestanding graphene has a rippled structure, with each ripple flipping up and down in response to the ambient temperature.
“The thinner something is, the more flexible it is,” Thibado said. “And at only one atom thick, there is nothing more flexible. It’s like a trampoline, constantly moving up and down. If you want to stop it from moving, you have to cool it down to 20 Kelvin.”
GEHs use a negatively charged sheet of graphene suspended between two metal electrodes. When the graphene flips up, it induces a positive charge in the top electrode. When it flips down, it positively charges the bottom electrode, creating an alternating current. With diodes wired in opposition, allowing the current to flow both ways, separate paths are provided through the circuit, producing a pulsing DC current that performs work on a load resistor.
This video provides a little more background.
About the WoodNext Foundation: The WoodNext Foundation manages the philanthropy of tech innovator and Roku CEO/founder Anthony Wood and his wife, Susan. Their philanthropic efforts are guided by their overall mission to advance human progress and remove obstacles to a fulfilling life. The WoodNext Foundation makes grants and investments in a variety of areas, including scientific and biomedical research, mental health, homelessness, education, nature conservation, disaster recovery and economic opportunity, with a focus on addressing root causes.
Researchers develop technique to synthesize water-soluble alloy nanoclusters
Peer-Reviewed PublicationIMAGE:
SCIENTISTS FROM QINGDAO UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPED A NOVEL PATH TO SYNTHESIZE ATOMICALLY PRECISE, WATER-SOLUBLE ALLOY NANOCLUSTERS.
view moreCREDIT: XUN YUAN, SCHOOL OF MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, QINGDAO UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
In recent years, ultrasmall metal nanoclusters have unlocked advances in fields ranging from bioimaging and biosensing to biotherapy thanks to their unique molecular-like properties. In a study published in the journal Polyoxometalates on December 11, 2023, a research team from Qingdao University of Science and Technology proposed a design to synthesize atomically precise, water-soluble alloy nanoclusters.
“The novelty of this study is in a new strategy for the synthesis of water-soluble alloy nanoclusters and a further contribution to the fundamental understanding of the alloying mechanism of metal nanoclusters,” said study author Xun Yuan from Qingdao University of Science and Technology.
“The ultimate goal is to develop such alloy nanoclusters as novel nanomedicine,” Yuan said.
Nanoclusters are made of only a few to tens of atoms, and the size of their cores is usually below 2 nanometers (nm). Since the ultra-small size of the clusters is close to the Fermi wavelength of electrons, the continuous band turns to discontinuous and becomes molecule-like with discrete energy levels. Consequently, the nanoclusters exhibit unique optical and electronic characteristics.
Recent studies have demonstrated how alloy nanoclusters — synthesized by combining two or more different metals into a monometallic nanocluster framework — can generate new geometric structures and additional functionality. Researchers can “tune” the physical and chemical properties (e.g., optical, catalytic, and magnetic) of metal nanoclusters. Moreover, alloy nanoclusters often exhibit synergistic or new properties, which go beyond those of monometallic nanoclusters.
Heightened interest in potential opportunities has spurred recent activity to develop new methods to synthesize alloy nanoclusters. But, while the correlations between size, morphology, and composition of alloy nanoclusters and their physicochemical properties have been well demonstrated, issues surrounding doping processes and the dynamic responses are not well understood, according to Yuan.
“These unresolved issues are mainly due to the technical limitations in characterizing the alloy atom distribution at the atomic level, especially in real-time tracking of the dynamic heteroatom movement in the alloy nanoparticles during the reactions,” Yuan said.
In addition, most of those methods were exploited for hydrophobic alloy nanoclusters, which may preclude synthesis for water-soluble alloy nanoclusters. Given the wide application of water-soluble alloy nanoclusters in biomedicine and environmental protection, developing novel synthetic strategies of water-soluble alloy nanoclusters at the atomic level is significantly important.
With this goal in mind, Yuan and collaborators found that seeding silver (Ag) ions could trigger the transformation from gold (Au)-based nanoclusters into alloy Au18-xAgx(GSH)14 nanocluster which can be further transformed to composition-fixed Au26Ag(GSH)17Cl2 nanoclusters by gold (Au) ions— with GSH denoting water-soluble glutathione. Moreover, the position of the single Ag atom of Au26Ag(GSH)17Cl2 nanoclusters could be identified on the surface.
“Our results could achieve the atom-level modulation of metal nanoparticles, and provide a platform for producing alloy functional nanomaterials for specific applications,” said Yuan. “Additionally, the acquired alloying mechanism may deepen the understanding on the properties-performance of alloy nanomaterials, contributing to the generation of new knowledge in the fields of nanomaterials, chemistry, and nanocluster science.”
In future studies, the researchers will use these alloy nanoclusters for biomedical applications.
The research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Taishan Scholar Foundation of Shandong Province.
Other contributors include Shuyu Qian, Fengyu Liu, Haiguang Zhu, Yong Liu, Ting Feng and Xinyue Dou from Qingdao University of Science and Technology.
About Polyoxometalates
Polyoxometalates is a peer-reviewed, international and interdisciplinary research journal that focuses on all aspects of polyoxometalates, featured in rapid review and fast publishing, sponsored by Tsinghua University and published by Tsinghua University Press. Submissions are solicited in all topical areas, ranging from basic aspects of the science of polyoxometalates to practical applications of such materials. Polyoxometalates offers readers an attractive mix of authoritative and comprehensive Reviews, original cutting-edge research in Communication and Full Paper formats, Comments, and Highlight.
About SciOpen
SciOpen is a professional open access resource for discovery of scientific and technical content published by the Tsinghua University Press and its publishing partners, providing the scholarly publishing community with innovative technology and market-leading capabilities. SciOpen provides end-to-end services across manuscript submission, peer review, content hosting, analytics, and identity management and expert advice to ensure each journal’s development by offering a range of options across all functions as Journal Layout, Production Services, Editorial Services, Marketing and Promotions, Online Functionality, etc. By digitalizing the publishing process, SciOpen widens the reach, deepens the impact, and accelerates the exchange of ideas.
JOURNAL
Polyoxometalates
ARTICLE TITLE
Metal ion-induced alloying and size transformation of water-soluble metal nanoclusters
No comments:
Post a Comment