Patterning and controlled agglomeration of nanoparticles/colloids to develop the nanostructured thin film for improved solar radiation absorption

PECRE Award Holder: Oghenefego Paul Okpozo, Robert Gordon University

Exchange Host: Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, India

Emulsion droplets have been used as a micro-template to direct self-assembly of small number of colloidal particles into well organised aggregates or clusters. These aggregates could set the stage for the formation of complex assemblies such as photonic crystals. These are known to be applied in catalysis, optics and opto-electrical devices. Some authors have investigated the use of emulsion droplets as templates for adsorbing particles to their surface as known to be pickering droplets. In this research, my aim is to make ferrofluid nano-emulsion with its interface to be used as template for clustering and deposition of particle of interest on a substrate. The ferrofluid like its nanoparticle counterpart can be manipulated by external magnetic field into 1 dimensional arrays consisting of dipole-dipole magnetic interaction.

Upon all that was explained, the success of this hypothesis depends on effective functionalisation of the particle of interest to be deposited on the polymeric substrate. If the particles are not properly functionalized, it could be either lost with the flushed ferrofluid or randomly dispersed within the polymer matrix. Depending on the particle of interest, several processing techniques are required and systematic analysis of its behaviour under varying thermo-physical conditions are considered.

The rationale behind this investigation is to device cheaper means of making nanostructure films using the self-assembly technique to improve, for example, photo-absorption and conversion to electricity of flexible Photo-Voltaics thin cell and Bio-sensors. The reason is so that manufacturing of such devices can be affordably executed by third world countries; because it is costly to purchase and maintain (about; CAPEX .. > £8.9M, O&M .. > £1001</yr) a MEMS/NEMS equipment. Also, it consumes lots of energy during operation and require clean room for operation.{> £600/Sq. ft.).