LECTURING
Dr Ibrahim Dar, Dr Deepak Venkateshvaran
Energy, which has been playing a critical role in shaping human activities and demands, can be unambiguously considered a “modern currency”. To meet the current demands of our society, we need to revolutionise technologies targeting the harnessing of green and abundant energy available on earth while improving high-energy-density electrochemical energy storage devices. Materials science, which holds a central position in energy-oriented research domains, continues designing and investigating diverse materials to capture different forms of energy, ranging from solar to thermal and mechanical energy. In this module, we discuss the significance of miniaturisation in energy-harnessing devices by referring to various nanomaterials-based energy conversion technologies involving photovoltaics, thermoelectricity, piezoelectricity and pyroelectricity. After thoroughly discussing energy-harnessing devices, we extend our focus to energy storage systems.
Typically, this module covers
Dr Yan Wang, Dr Javad Shamsi, Dr Ibrahim Dar
The remarkable properties of nanomaterials have attracted immense interest in both pure and applied science. Applications span many areas of significance to society, such as catalysis, bio-sensing and energy harvesting. To utilise the unique properties of nanomaterials, a thorough understanding of their unique materials science is required.
The compositional and structural control at the nanometre scale can lead to unprecedented chemical and physical effects while dramatically enhancing some properties. The materials of interest for such effects of length scale are wide-ranging, including metals, semiconductors, ceramics, polymers, and composites. The examples of metal, semiconductors and carbon (from fullerenes to carbon nanotubes and graphene) nanomaterials will be discussed in detail to show how the “bottom-up” synthetic approaches can give rise to materials of low dimensionality (0D, 1D and 2D) exhibiting unique properties, desired for various applications. Examples of the growth and applications of 2D nanomaterials will also be covered.
This lecture series will provide the salient grounding and broad skills necessary to understand inorganic nanomaterials in a contemporary nanoscience context. Detailed coverage will be given of selected special interest topics. The course will also touch upon the topic of nanomanufacturing, emphasising the transition to technology and the need for scalable processes.