HIGH THROUGHPUT INORGANIC NANOMATERIALS DISCOVERY

目前的技术进步在很大程度上取决于新材料的发现。众所周知，不含碳的元素组合(称为无机材料)在电子产品、计算机和产品中的紫外线防护以及利用太阳能等领域具有重要用途。特别是，当无机颗粒非常小，通常由数百个原子(称为纳米材料)组成时，它们可能具有不寻常的和令人兴奋的特性。这类纳米材料的发现很大程度上是因为我们无法足够快地制造这些材料，然后能够充分测试它们的性能。拟议中的研究旨在开发一种新的、更快的方法来制造和发现能够吸收阳光的无机纳米材料(作为一种自由能源)，并利用这种能量将水分解为其成分氢和氧(在一个被称为光催化的过程中)。然后，氢可以用来为未来的汽车或设备提供动力。当我们的化石燃料(如石油)耗尽时，这样的过程对于维持地球上人类的能源需求是很重要的。

The current advancement of technology very much depends upon the discovery of new materials. It has been known for some time that combinations of elements not involving carbon (called inorganic materials) can have important uses in areas from electronics, computing and UV protection in products, to harnessing energy from the sun. In particular, when inorganic particles are very small, typically made up of a few hundred atoms (called nanomaterials), they can have unusual and exciting properties. The discovery of such nanomaterials is very much hampered by our inability to make these materials fast enough and then to be able to test them adequately for their properties.The proposed research seeks to develop a new, faster way of making and discovering inorganic nanomaterials that can absorb sunlight (as an free energy source), and use this energy to split water into its constituents, hydrogen and oxygen (in a process known as photocatalysis). The hydrogen can then be used for powering cars or devices of the future. Such a process is important to sustain the energy requirements of mankind on this earth when our fossil fuels (e.g. oil) are exhausted.