Catalytic Diodes for Micropower Applications : Verification of High Energy Conversion Efficiency

摘要

Our ability to field useful, nano-enabled microsystems that capitalize on recent advances in sensor technology is severely limited by the energy density of available power sources. The catalytic nanodiode (pioneered at Berkeley by Somorjai, 2005) is an alternative revolutionary source of micropower. A sizable fraction of the chemical energy is harvested via hot electrons (or ballistic electrons) that are created by the catalytic chemical reaction. The reported efficiency of the chemical to electrical conversion can be remarkably high, with 3 electrons collected for every 4 CO2 molecules produced. This project is a feasibility study to verify the reported high energy conversion efficiency. If verified, we hope to follow this research with a new project that would: (1) Investigate the underlying physics and chemistry of these devices, and (2) Explore alternative chemical reactions and catalysts that could serve as more convenient sources of chemical energy.