Chinese scientists have developed a nanotech solution to harvest energy from multiple electrons—something alternative approaches to artificial photosynthesis have not yet managed to do.

Carbon nanotubes with the proper imperfections were found to replace more problematic and expensive materials in dye-sensitized solar cells.

Researchers have developed a method of producing titanium oxide crystals with more reactive surfaces.

Nanowires of indium phosphide grown directly on an electrode greatly increase the flow of electrons through a polymer film to the electrode.

Phil McKenna at NewScientist.com news service describes a nanotechnology advance that turns radiation directly into electricity, leading us to wonder if it thus simultaneously provides a use for nuclear waste. This nanotech application appears to be in the early stages of development, so aside from questions of just how efficient and how expensive it would [...]

By combining more precise core-shell nanoparticle synthesis techniques with electronic structure theory to predict the properties of nanoparticles, nanotechnology researchers have produced a better catalysts for fuel cells.

An economical nanotech procedure—ball milling followed by hot pressing—recasts a commercially available material as a composite of random nanostructures that efficiently converts waste heat into electricity.

Nanotech provides a way to tailor the optical and electronic properties of materials through engineering their nanostructures. Nanotechnology researchers have demonstrated that quantum dots of different sizes will absorb light of different wavelengths, and that an architecture using nanotubes transports electrons better than one using nanospheres, thus making more efficient solar cells possible. In “Catching [...]

Proponents of replacing gasoline with hydrogen for fueling cars have to find a practical way to store hydrogen. One potential nanotech-based solution is presented by the recent demonstration that hydrogen can form chemical bonds with most of the carbon atoms in single-walled carbon nanotubes of the appropriate diameter (2.0 nm). From “The March of the [...]

Nanotechnology catalysts may enable more efficient fuel cells to power consumer electronics via the oxidation of methanol.

Fibers made from zinc oxide nanowires can generate electrical current from low frequency mechanical motion, like body movements.

Chemistry World over at RSC.org tells of a happy new research result in the area of nanotechnology for energy: Two teams of US scientists have demonstrated silicon-based ‘thermoelectric’ materials that could convert waste heat back into electricity – potentially giving a boost to the efficiency of everything from power stations to refrigerators… The thermoelectric effect [...]