Advanced nanocomposite materials with energy related applications

Energy is the vital force powering every aspect of our society from business, manufacturing, transportation of products, and services to serve the people and worlds economies. Nanotechnology has introduced new concepts for innovative technology applications in energy research, such as solar energy harvesting, storage and conversion, hydrogen production and storage, conversion and use of energy (fuel cells) etc. optical and chemical sensors, photonics, imaging, and drug delivery systems. In this presentation we bring to light recent advances in our laboratory on synthesis, characterization, optical and physico-chemical properties of colloidal materials with energy production applications; particularly, we highlights work from the authors' laboratories in catalytic applications in fuel cells processes and solar cells applications, using noble metallic nanoparticles including gold, silver and platinum and oxide nanoparticles (e.g. silica, titania, MnOx). We'll focus on isotropic and anisotropic nano-composite materials, solid and hollow nanomaterials, core-shell and alloy type nanomaterials, monometallic and bimetallic nanoparticles with applications for solar and fuell cells.