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nanotimes News in Brief

in a way that preserves the properties endowed by the nanostructuring and the doping. These pellets exhibit properties better than the hard-to-make thermoelectric materials currently available in the marketplace. Additionally, this new method for creating the doped pellets is much faster, easier, and cheaper than conventional methods of making thermoelectric materials.

“This is not a one-off discovery. Rather, we have developed and demonstrated a new way to create a whole new class of doped thermoelectric mate- rials with superior properties,” said Ramanath, a faculty member in the Department of Materials Sci- ence and Engineering at Rensselaer. “Our findings truly hold the potential to transform the technology landscape of refrigeration and make a real impact on our lives.”

Additionally, the new study shows the Rensselaer research team can make batches of 10 to 15 grams (enough to make several pea-sized pellets) of the doped nanomaterial in two to three minutes with a microwave oven. Larger quantities can be produced using industrial-sized microwaves ovens.

“Our ability to scalably and inexpensively produce both p- and n-type materials with a high ZT paves the way to the fabrication of high-efficiency cooling devices, as well as solid-state thermoelectric devices for harvesting waste heat or solar heat into electrici- ty,” said Borca-Tasciuc, professor in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering at Rensselaer.

Rutvik J. Mehta, Yanliang Zhang, Chinnathambi Karthik, BinaySingh,RichardW.Siegel,TheodorianBorca-Tasciuc,

12-01 :: January 2012

Ganpati Ramanath: A new class of doped nanobulk high figure of merit thermoelectrics by scalable bottom-up assembly, In: Nature Materials AOP, January 10, 2012, DOI:10.1038/nmat3213 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/NMAT3213

http://www.youtube.com/user/rpirensselaer?feature= mhee#p/u/12/hgmBwg3FeS4

Faculty Home Page – Ramanath http://homepages.rpi.edu/~ganapr/

Faculty Home Page – Borca-Tasciuc http://nanotec.meche.rpi.edu/

Faculty Home Page – Siegel h t t p : / / m s e . r p i . e d u / f a c u l t y _ d e t a i l s . cfm?facultyID=sieger

New research demonstrates that a prototype water purification reactor containing a thin film of tita- nium dioxide (TiO2

) is able to enhance the sun‘s

natural disinfection properties This device could reduce the need for expensive antibiotics or poiso- nous chemicals.

Researchers from CQUniversity, Australia, addressed this problem by adapting thin-film fixed- bed reactor (TTFBR) technology to provide treated water. In the reactor water contaminated by Aero- monas hydrophila was slowly passed over a sloping film of TiO2

at a fixed rate and in full sunlight.

Results showed that using TiO2 as a photocatalyst increased the effectiveness of solar disinfection

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