Azobenzene Functionalized Carbon Nanotubes and Other Templated Photoswitch Molecules for High Energy Density Solar Thermal Fuels

Technology

The invention suggests a new approach to the design of high-energy density solar thermal fuels based on combining well-studied photoswitch molecules with carbon nanotubes to increase energy storage capacity and thermal stability of the photoswitch molecules. The novel solar thermal fuel is composed of azobenzene-functionalized carbon nanotubes and can have both volumetric and gravimetric energy densities comparable to that of Li-ion batteries.  

Problem Addressed

Large-scale adoption of solar thermal fuels requires enhanced energy storage capacity and thermal stability. Previous solar thermal fuels degraded after only a few cycles of energy conversion and release and/or were composed of expensive, non-abundant elements.  

Advantages

• No emissions
• Easily transportable in liquid or powder form
• Easy to recharge
• Can cycle through energy conversion and release numerous times without degradation
• Nanoscale template substrate imposes close-packed, highly ordered array of adsorbed photomolecules, which leads to increased volumetric energy density
• Enables systematic manipulation of the inter- and intra-molecular interactions, creating a highly effective set of tuning parameters for maximizing both energy storage capacity and storage lifetime of the solar thermal fuel