Nanowires for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Production

摘要

We report here two approaches that we have developed recently to help solve the problem of energy crisis and global warming facing us today. One approach is to use nanoparticles attached to the end of single-walled carbon nanotubes to catalytically convert CO_2 and CH_4 into hydrogen and carbon fibers, which can then be used in hydrogen fuel cells and as the building material in transportation vehicles and many other structures. The second approach is to use silica nanowires as templates to make nanoscale electrodes to be used in solar cells. The main advantage of this type of solar cells is that it would be easy to incorporate them directly into glass windows on all the buildings.