Synthesis Of Two Kinds Of Nanomaterials And Their Applications In Energy Conversion

The development of nanoscience and nanotechnology focusing on nanomaterials inspires people with new ways to solve the energy issues and environment pollutions. In this thesis, the roles that nanomaterials play in solving energy issues were explored by applying one dimensional nanofibers to fabricate nanogenerators and nano-hybrid in dye-sensitized solar cells.First, a facial, time-economical experimental program was developed to fabricate polycrystalline perovskite lead zirconate titanate (PZT) nanofibers by employing sol-gel method and electrospinning technique. The prepared PZT nanofibers showed desired morphology, good crystallinity as well as uniform distribution of grain, which was revealed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD). The piezoelectric nanogenerators based on single PZT nanofiber showed good output performance. Second, a nano-hybrid material was synthesized by in-situ growing vanadium carbide nanoparticles (VC-np) on graphene. TEM analysis demonstrated the VC-nps distributed well on graphene sheets with strong binding force. When served as the counter electrode of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), it performs a Pt-like catalytic activity for I3-/Γ reduction reaction. Furthermore, the DSSC with VC-np/graphene based counter electrodes gave power conversion efficiency of6.49%.