Nanonets: New Materials, Devices for Integrated Energy Harnessing & Storage "Nanonets" comprising networks of electrically interconnected nanowires is exploited for its inventive, high-performance and fault-tolerant properties in electronics, green energy harnessing and storage applications

Electronic materials occur in different shapes and forms, which lead to diverse application opportunities. For example, silicon exists as single crystal, polycrystalline, and amorphous; with all three forms yielding distinct properties and radically different applications. Similar analogies can be drawn up for zinc oxide (and a host of other materials) where nanowires, will lead to exciting opportunities which are yet to be exploited from its single crystal, polycrystalline, and amorphous forms. A “Nanonet,” comprising a planar network of electrically interconnected nanowires, that promises a revolution in the world of electronics with low-cost, inventive, and fault-tolerant properties that will stimulate opportunities in energy harnessing and storage systems. The program will focus on developing nanonetworks of semiconducting oxides and hybrid materials to fabricate integrated solar cells and charge storage devices. Rather than focus on the oft studied ZnO and TiO₂ as used in dye sensitized solar cells, this program will exploit the little studied, but promising properties of Fe, Cu, and Sn oxides and sulphides. So far most studies on Fe, Cu, and Sn have focused on their thin film forms and although sulphides of these materials showed excellent absorption in the visible spectrum, problems with recombination and effective charge collection have hampered progress. The nanonet device designs proposed in this program will enable exploitation of their superior absorption and tunable transport properties in high efficiency solar cells. Furthermore, the same materials would also be effectively employed in charge storage devices. In addition to the exciting device possibilities, this research will be driven by the fundamental properties of nano networks that remain to be explored: photogeneration and separation of charges in 2D & 3D multijunction nanonets, charge transfer (& transport) between different nanoscale species, and electrochemical reactions at interfaces in interpenetrating networks and heterophases.