Thermo-photo-voltaic devices (TPV) can make efficient use of energy resources, now wasted, by generation of electrical energy from exhaust streams of engines, power plants, incinerators, and chemical reactors. Recovery of 10% of the wasted thermal energy from automobiles in the United States is equivalent to saving 30 billion gallons of fuel per year. In a TPV device rare earth ions, in ceramic nanofibers heated by exhaust gases, emit photons efficiently in a relatively intense band. The photons are converted to electrical power with commercial photodiodes. TPV devices that are mechanically robust and have no deleterious effects on the automobile or other system need to be designed and manufactured. A nanofiber based device will meet these demands. The processes for making nanofibers require sophisticated insights from the disciplines brought together in this project, to control, scale up, and manufacture the nanofibers useful in TPV devices. Our successful experience with the design and manufacture of filters and wound dressings will be applied to this TPV project. Manufacture of TPV devices based on nanofiber engineering crosses conventional materials, scientific and technological boundaries. Metal containing polymers, electrospun into nanofibers, pyrolized to ceramics, and mounted in a stream of hot gas, emit photons that are converted into power in semiconducting photodiodes.
This project is at the forefront of new, emerging, nanoscale engineering. Graduate students will learn from their interactions with Professors from several disciplines, researchers at the NASA Glenn Research Center, and at the Technion, in Israel. Qualified high school students from underrepresented groups will be recruited to work in our labs through our interaction with the pre-engineering program (Project Lead the Way) of the Akron Public School system. Working with The University of Akron's First Year Experience program and our proposed NSF-STEP program, REU funds associated with this project will be used to provide research opportunities for undergraduate students from underrepresented groups identified by their professors as interested and qualified. Hundreds of students in K-12 classes will visit the nanofiber production laboratories. Electrospinning kits and technical guidance will be supplied to high school classes, science projects, and science fair projects. Undergraduate and community college students will be introduced to laboratory research.
