Title: Nanotechnology for energy harvesting: from nanogenerators to nanopiezotronics
By: Prof. Zhong Lin (Z.L.) Wang (Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta USA)
Date: October 27, 2008
Abstract:Exploring renewable, sustainable and green energy resources is the most critical challenge to sustainable development of human civilization. At the large-scale, besides the well known energy resources that power the world today, such as petroleum, coal, hydraulic, natural gas and nuclear, active research and development are being taken in exploring alternative energy resources such as solar, geothermal, biomass, nuclear, wind, and hydrogen. At a much smaller scale, energy and technologies are desperately needed for independent and continuous operations of implantable biosensors, ultrasensitive chemical and biomolecular sensors, nanorobotics, micro-electromechanical systems, remote and mobile environmental sensors, homeland security and even portable personal electronics. A nanorobot, for example, is proposed to be a smart machine that may be able to sense and adapt to the environment, manipulate objects, taking actions and perform complex functions, but a key challenge is to find a power source that can drive the nanorobot without adding much weight. An implanted wireless biosensor, for example, requires a power source, which may be provided directly or indirectly by charging of a battery. It is highly desired for wireless devices and even required for implanted biomedical devices to be self-powered without using battery. Therefore, it is desperate to develop nanotechnology that harvests energy from the environment for self-powering these nanodevices. This talk will focus on nanotechnologies that have been developed for harvesting energy from our living environment with a focus on mechanical energy. An introduction will be given about nanogenerators for generating electricity using sonic waves and body movements. Finally, a new field on nano-piezotronics will be introduced, which uses piezoelectric-semiconducting coupled property for fabricating novel and unique electronic devices and components.
About Dr. Zhong Lin (ZL) Wang：Dr. Zhong Lin (ZL) Wang is a Regents' Professor, COE Distinguished Professor and Director, Center for Nanostructure Characterization, at Georgia Tech. He has authored and co-authored four scientific reference and textbooks and over 540 peer reviewed journal articles, 55 review papers and book chapters, edited and co-edited 14 volumes of books on nanotechnology, and held 20 patents and provisional patents. Dr. Wang is the world’s top 25 most cited authors in nanotechnology from 1992-2002 (ISI, Science Watch). His entire publications have been cited for over 23,000 times. The H-index of his citations is 72. Dr. Wang discovered the nanobelt in 2001, which is considered to be a ground-breaking work. The paper on nanobelt was the second most cited paper in chemistry in 2001-2003 world-wide. His paper on piezoelectric nanosprings was one of the most cited papers in materials science in 2004 world-wide. His recent invention of world’s first nanogenerator will have profound impacts to implantable biosensors and molecular machines/robotics. In 1999, he and his colleagues discovered the world’s smallest balance, nanobalance, which was selected as the breakthrough in nanotechnology by the America Physical Society. He was elected to a fellow of American Physical Society in 2005, fellow of AAAS in 2006, has received the 2001 S.T. Li prize for Outstanding Contribution in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, the 2000 and 2005 Georgia Tech Outstanding Faculty Research Author Awards, Sigma Xi 2005 sustain research awards, Sigma Xi 1998 and 2002 best paper awards, and the 1999 Burton Medal from Microscopy Society of America. Details can be found at: http://www.nanoscience.gatech.edu/zlwang