[E&E seminars] Nano-Enabled Energy Conversion and Storage, Oct. 25

[Karen Gibson]

LFEE Seminar on Energy and Environment
Sponsored by the MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment


Nano-Enabled Energy Conversion and Storage-A New Paradigm

Joel Schindall, Ph.D.
Bernard Gordon Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer  
Science, and
Associate Director, MIT Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic  
Systems

Wednesday
October 25, 2006
12:00 - 1:30 pm
E40-496


Abstract

Many significant efforts are being made to identify and utilize new  
energy sources, to increase production of existing sources, to  
increase conversion and storage efficiency, and, equally important,  
to reduce pollution. However, incremental improvement will not be  
sufficient. What is needed are new approaches. At the same time, we  
are entering an exciting era where we now have the technology to  
engineer materials on a nanometer scale, i.e. at dimensions  
comparable to the size of individual atoms and molecules. But what  
does nanotechnology have to do with the world's massive energy needs?  
In my address, I will explore nanotechnology as an "outside the box"  
technology that has the potential to "re-invent" (transform) some  
long-known but little-used technologies to the point that they may  
offer significant improvement over the accepted ways of converting  
and storing energy.

Some of this is already happening. One example is the use of fuel  
cells for power conversion. Perhaps this is not thought of as  
nanotechnology, but it typically involves designing and fabricating a  
nanoscale catalytic structure to implement energy transformation at  
the molecular level. Another example is the use of nanostructured  
battery electrodes to increase storage capacity and reduce charging  
time of traditional chemical batteries.

I believe that the best is yet to come. I will give examples of  
several "inefficient" technologies which offer the potential of being  
transformed by nanotechnology to the point that they may be superior  
to the accepted way of energy processing.

One such transformation would be to use capacitors rather than  
batteries for highly-efficient regenerative energy storage.  
Ridiculous? Perhaps not. In MIT's Laboratory for Electromagnetic and  
Electronic Systems (LEES), we are exploring a nanostructured  
ultracapacitor electrode that has the potential to increase a  
capacitor's energy storage density to equal that of a chemical  
battery. Another technology that we are exploring is the use of  
nanostructured emissive coatings and filters to significantly  
increase the efficiency of direct thermophotovoltaic (TPV) generation  
of electricity from heat. I suspect that some of you may be aware of  
or working on other nano-enabled technologies, and I invite you to  
add your examples to this list during the seminar.


Bring your lunch - light refreshment will be provided.


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please contact Karen Gibson, kgibson at mit.edu





Karen  L. Gibson
Program Assistant
MIT Laboratory For Energy and the Environment
77 Massachusetts Avenue, E40-469
(1 Amherst St., E40-469 - for DHL and FedEx)
Cambridge, MA 02139  USA
Tel:  1 (617) 258-6368; Fax:  1 (617) 258-6590

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