research Vision
The overall vision of our research work is the development of processes for the mass production of nanowires and their integration in a simple, reliable and scalable manner into highly efficient energy conversion/mechanical devices. Currently, a bulk of our research work is primarily geared towards the fabrication of highly efficient thermoelectrics, solar cells, photocatalytic systems that employ semiconductor nanowires as the primary component. We are also interested in designing, engineering and fabricating ‘smart’ mechanical devices from nanowire-based composites. The first part of this vision involves the design and implementation of novel process for mass producing nanowires with controlled diameters and morphologies that also routinely exhibit high resistance to against air- and moisture degradation. Here, the goal is to impart stabilities to nanowire surfaces without altering either their electrical or electronic properties in the process. The second part of our vision is to develop strategies for the large-scale assembly of nanowires in an interface-engineered manner for their direct use in electronic device fabrication. Here, the goal is to reduce the amount of post-processing necessary for converting nanowires into functional energy conversion devices. We are interested in designing and developing strategies that lead to the assembly of nanowires either in randomly-oriented or aligned fashion, without altering their morphologies or dimensions in the process. Retention of the morphologies and dimensions within the nanowire assembly, coupled with the engineering of the interfaces between the nanowires in the assemblies, is expected to ensure that novel properties observed in individual nanowires are extendable to assemblies composed of multitudes of nanowires. Overall, this is expected to lead to the production of energy conversion/mechanical devices on a large-scale for widespread use of mankind in as easy, reliable, reproducible and inexpensive manner as the production of aspirin. If nanowire-based devices were to be deployed on a widespread scale for terrestrial uses, such large-scale production (and identification of avenues for recycling) of nanowire-based devices is essential.
Research Overview
Characteristics desired of nanowires and nanowire-based devices and system for the mass production and deployment of energy conversion devices based on bulk nanowire assemblies. The vision of our work is to impart nanowires and nanowire-based systems all the above desired characteristics.
