Photo-Physics and Renewable Energy Applications of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are two-dimensionally confined quantum  wires that have the potential to impact a variety of renewable energy applications.  SWCNTs have several fundamental properties that make them attractive for  sustainable energy conversion technologies, including high electron and hole  mobilities, size-tunable ionization potentials and electron affinities in an energy  range relevant to many photovoltaic devices, and optical transitions in the visible  and near-infrared spectral regions. Additionally, they possess numerous  properties amenable to practical, scalable, and economic device fabrication  including abundant source material, a natural disposition for solution processing,  high surface area for efficient charge transfer, and flexibility. Current projects in  our group are aimed at understanding the functionality of SWCNTs in energy  conversion technologies where the nanotubes are used to collect and transport  charges, and how this functionality varies with SWCNT electronic structure. This  presentation will cover some important fundamental photo-physics of SWCNTs  and some energy conversion applications we are exploring at NREL. These include  the use of SWCNT thin films as transparent conducting electrodes for  photovoltaics, SWCNTs as electron acceptors in organic photovoltaics, and SWCNT  bio-hybrid electrodes for hydrogen fuel production.