Thursday, 9th October 2008 (538 views)

Europe is preparing to lead the way in developing sustainable energy applications using nanotechnology, it has been claimed.

Solar technology utilising nanomaterials has the "greatest promise" of becoming a replacement for fossil fuels, according to Nanowerk.

The issue was discussed at a recent conference, entitled Nanotechnology for Sustainable Energy, organised by the European Science Foundation.

"If solar energy is harvested where it is most abundant and distributed on a global net, it will be enough to replace a large fraction of today's fossil-based electricity generation," claimed Professor Bengt Kasemo, chair of the conference.

Electrically-conducting materials such as gold could be used to develop high-capacity batteries, the news provider noted, citing research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Gold nanowires have a large surface area, meaning that they have optical properties for carrying an electrical charge.

Meanwhile, a Nano 50 Award was recently given to a team of US scientists for their innovative method of fusing gold electrodes and nanowires that could potentially be used in microelectronics.

 

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