Chemical synthesis of metal oxides dielectric nanomaterials in energy harvesting

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Global energy demand is growing rapidly and significantly as energy, the key ingredient in all sectors of modern economy, has invaded the quality of life today due to our dependency on its abundant and uninterrupted supply. In particular, the increased levels of the green house gas, carbon dioxide (CO2), in the atmosphere is believed to be a major contributor to global warming and pollution due to the burning of fossil fuels used in various spheres of our life. A significant amount of heat energy is wasted by aluminum and steel industries. The recovery of these large amounts of wasted thermal energy will provide opportunity for improving overall energy efficiency in these energy-intensive industrial processes. Thermoelectric (TE) materials, which can generate electricity by recycling the heat wasted from industries using high temperature processes, could play an important role in global sustainable energy solution. This study seeks to address a problem of interest for Hydro-Québec that specialized in energy generation, transmission and distribution in Quebec, Canada and North America. Hydro-Québec seeks our expertise in the synthesis and characterization of metal oxide dielectric nanomaterials. In that regard, we propose to use sol-gel technique, a chemical route, to synthesize and characterize ZnO and NiO nanostructures materials for harvesting energy from waste heat. The outcome of the scientific findings of this project is expected to help Canadian industries to develop economical, ecological and efficient materials in harvesting energy by recycling wasted energy.