The using of nanomaterials in the medical applications will be led to initiate or strengthen the integration between research (in science and medicine) and industries, which will increasingly benefit the human and life quality.
The project was funded by Industrial Modernization Centre (IMC) in 2010. This project focuses on using different engineered nanomaterials for improving the efficiency of photovoltaic devices (i.e. Solar Cells and LED). This project also, focuses on fabrication of other optoelectronic devices such as Light Emitting Diode (LED), which is identified as a dominant new technology poised to realize the next generation of flat panel displays.
Nanotechnology enables us to design nanostructural semiconductors, metal-semiconductor nanocomposite and organic –inorganic hybrid, which open up new ways to design high efficiency energy conversion devices. This is brought by semiconductor nanomaterials which shapes and sizes can be controlled to give the highest efficiency by tuning their band gap to the solar intensity distribution. These new nanomaterials will be used to fabricate the highest possible efficiency of photovoltaic device to harness sunlight to generate low cost electric energy.
This project will offer development of the following:
The main goal of this project is to fabricate and test a composite of different concentration of plasmonic nanomaterials and Graphene to enhance the photothermal conversion which would enhance the rate of water vaporization. Also, modification of the Solar Still system using solar concentrator is one of our objectives. It is worth to mention that silver nanoparticles have super-antibacterial effect. This means that the obtained water is pure and clean not only from salt and impurities but also from all bacteria and microorganism. After optimizing the conditions in order to obtain maximum performance of the solar sill system using our nanocomposites, we will develop a method for large scale production of these nanomaterials. Also, a pilot plane of solar still will be built and tested using our nanocomposite. New methodology which combines solar desalination and nanotechnology based on producing low cost nanocomposite to enhance the rate of solar thermal water desalination. These new nanomaterials absorb light so strongly and convert it efficiently into heat energy. If these new nanocomposite added to see water in simple solar still setup, they will increase dramatically the rate of water evaporization using sun light, the water vapor could be condensate, then collected and used as a pure water source. Simple solar still design has been developed in our laboratory to examine the concept of large enhancement of the rate of water desalination due to presence of efficient photothermal nanocomposite. Further work need to be done to optimize the material concentration and maximize the performance of our prototype of Solar Still