Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - NANOBIOENER (NanoBio-inorganic generators for conversion of renewable chemical energy into electricity)

Teaser

• What is the problem/issue being addressed?This project has addressed the sustainable production of electricity from renewable sources.• Why is it important for society?Nanogenerators are currently and widely used in nanomedicine, nanorobots, nanosensors and nanorobotics...

Summary

• What is the problem/issue being addressed?
This project has addressed the sustainable production of electricity from renewable sources.
• Why is it important for society?
Nanogenerators are currently and widely used in nanomedicine, nanorobots, nanosensors and nanorobotics, among others. These devices produce electric energy by harvesting environmental mechanical motions; therefore its applications are limited to the availability of such mechanical energy. Our proposal aims at broaden its application to more restricted environments where mechanical stimuli are not possible.
• What are the overall objectives?
Overall objectives of NANOBIOENER project are the design and development of bio-inorganic nanogenerators which can convert chemical energy from renewable fuels into electricity.

Work performed

The work performed in this project has been the fabrication of biogenerators based on inorganic materials and enzymes to harvest chemical energy from renewable sources and convert it into electrical outputs through the piezoelectric effect. We have obtained a bio-inorganic devices capable to convert chemicals into mechanical stimuli that are sequentially harvested by piezoelectric materials generating electric power.

Final results

The NANOBIOENER project pioneers the first attempt of bio-inorganic nanogenerators where biological machinery is coupled with piezoelectric materials to harvest chemical energy to produce electricity. This project demonstrates the workability of the proposed concept and opens a wide field of new researchable and exploitable opportunities for this kind of new devices and its applications.