Role of nanotechnology and nanomaterials for utilization, storage and generation of hydrogen energy,
generation of environment friendly thermoelectric power, generation of geothermal energy and photovoltaic
or solar energy has been explored. Graphene nanosheet has emerged as a promising material for Platinum
catalyst support of fuel cell to enhance electrochemically active surface area and power generation.
Graphene and graphene based nanocomposites namely graphene-Polyaniline (PANI) are explored as promising
alternatives for hydrogen storage. Inorganic-organic nanocomposite electrolyte membranes comprising
of nanosize inorganic building block offers higher proton conductivity, ion exchange capacity and enhanced
power generation when applied in a fuel cell. Nanostructured thermoelectric material enhances the
power factor and figure of merit. Inorganic (bismuth telluride) –organic (conducting polymer) nanocomposites
are explored as a new class of thermoelectric material.
When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/3528

Banerjee, D.

Ganguly, S.

Kargupta, K.

SocioEconomic Challenges Journal (Sumy State University)

PROCEEDINGS OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE NANOMATERIALS: APPLICATIONS AND PROPERTIES 
Vol. 1 No 4, 04NEA09(5pp) (2012) 
 
 
2304-1862/2012/1(4)04NEA09(5) 04NEA09-1  2012 Sumy State University 
Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials for New and Sustainable Energy Engineering  
 
S. Ganguly1,*, K. Kargupta2, D. Banerjee3 
 
1 Chemical Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Malaysia 
2 Department of Chemical Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700 032, India 
3 Department of Physics, Bengal Engineering & Science University, Shibpur, Howrah-711103, West Bengal, India 
 
(Received 22 June 2012; published online 15 August 2012) 
 
Role of nanotechnology and nanomaterials for utilization, storage and generation of hydrogen energy, 
generation of environment friendly thermoelectric power, generation of geothermal energy and photovolta-
ic or solar energy has been explored. Graphene nanosheet has emerged as a promising material for Plati-
num catalyst support of fuel cell to enhance electrochemically active surface area and power generation. 
Graphene and graphene based nanocomposites namely graphene-Polyaniline (PANI) are explored as prom-
ising alternatives for hydrogen storage. Inorganic-organic nanocomposite electrolyte membranes compris-
ing of nanosize inorganic building block offers higher proton conductivity, ion exchange capacity and en-
hanced power generation when applied in a fuel cell. Nanostructured thermoelectric material enhances the 
power factor and figure of merit. Inorganic (bismuth telluride) –organic (conducting polymer) nanocompo-
sites are explored as a new class of thermoelectric material.      
 
Keywords: Energy engineering, sustainable, Nanotechnology, Nanomaterials, Hybrid, Hydrogen en-
ergy, Thermoelectric, Geothermal, Nanocatalysts, Nanostructures, Photoelectric and photovoltaic, Con-
ducting polymers. 
 
  PACS numbers: 88.30. – k, 88.30.mj, 72.15.Jf, 88.10.  – g  
 
 
                                                          
*
 gangulysaibal2011@gmail.com 
1. INTRODUCTION  
 
Nanotechnology, nanomaterials and sustainable 
energy engineering may arguably be some of the most 
important topics to influence human life in the near 
foreseeable future. With the reducing reserves of con-
ventional energy sources like oil, natural gas and coal, 
it becomes imperative to augment research efforts on 
new and sustainable energy sources. It is extremely 
interesting to note that all the new age energy sources 
like hydrogen energy, thermoelectric energy, geother-
mal energy, photovoltaic and solar energy etc needs the 
help of nanotechnology and nanomaterials to augment 
the efficient storage, generation, utilization and per-
haps even transmission in the future. Nanotechnology 
and nanomaterials add substantially the promise and 
potential of the new and sustainable energy utilization 
in commercial scale. 
 
2. HYDROGEN ENERGY  
 
2.1 Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials for Hy-
drogen Utilization  
 
In the wake of the emerging market potential for 
fuel cells and green energy generation using hydrogen 
as raw material, it becomes imperative to research up-
on the development of nanomaterials to improve its 
real-life performance. The proton exchange membrane 
fuel cell (PEMFC) and the phosphoric acid fuel cell 
(PAFC) are particularly in the focus of interest as some 
of the most promising power generator for a wide range 
of applications in transportation and in portable elec-
tronics. These fuel cells convert the chemical energy of 
the fuel and oxidant into electrical energy. The major 
material components are the conductive electrolyte 
membrane and the catalysts/electrodes.  
2.1.1 Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials for Fuel Cell 
Electrodes  
 
In order to enhance catalytic activity and to reduce 
the usage of Pt-based catalysts, one strategy is to ex-
plore novel carbon materials as catalyst supports and 
to effectively disperse Pt-based particles on these sup-
ports. During the past several years, a few research 
groups have investigated graphene, one type of novel 
carbon nanostructures, as a catalyst support and have 
demonstrated that graphene can improve the electro-
catalytic activity of Pt nanoparticles more effectively 
for oxidation than Vulcan XC-72R carbon black [1, 2, 3] 
in PEM Fuel Cell. 
Graphene is an exhilarating material; It is a 2D sin-
gle layer of carbon atoms with the hexagonal packed 
structure. The carbon bonds are sp2 hybridized, where 
the in-plane σ C-C bond is one of the strongest bonds in 
materials and the out-of-plane π bond, which contributes 
to a delocalized network of electrons, is responsible for 
the electron conduction of graphene and provides the 
weak interaction among graphene layers or between 
graphene and substrate. It has a large theoretical specif-
ic surface area (2630 m 2 g − 1), high intrinsic mobility 
(200 000 cm 2 v − 1 s − 1), high Young’s modulus (~1.0 
TPa). Its high optical transmittance ( ~ 97.7%) and good 
electrical conductivity make it attractive for applications 
of transparent conductive electrodes.  
To improve the energy efficiency and performance 
of fuel cell system, graphene as a catalyst support ma-
terial is synthesized using a new method (combined 
form of Modified Hummers Method and Improved 
method ). Graphene is characterized using TEM, Ra-
man Spectroscopy, FTIR, XRD. TEM images. Fig. 1 
shows single and multilayer layer graphene sheets. 
Figure 2 shows the Raman Spectroscopy of graphene 
sheet. In the Raman spectrum the G band is broadened 
 S. GANGULY, K. KARGUPTA, D. BANERJEE PROC. NAP 1, 04NEA09 (2012) 
 
 
04NEA09-2 
and shifted upward to 1595 cm -1. At the same time, 
the intensity of the D band at 1350 cm-1 increases sub-
stantially. These phenomena could be attributed to the 
significant decrease of the size of the in-plane sp2 do-
mains due to oxidation and partially ordered graphite 
crystal structure of graphene nanosheets.  
 
 
 
 
 
Fig. 1 – TEM analysis of Graphene 
 
 
 
Fig. 2 – Raman Spectroscopy of Graphene 
 
Dispersion of the electrocatalyst on graphene has 
been found to be useful for achieving relatively better 
performance in fuel cells. Almost 80% increase in elec-
trochemical surface area (ECSA) can be achieved by us-
ing graphene as a catalyst support [2]. It is reported in 
literature that the partially reduced GO-Pt based fuel 
cell delivered 60% enhanced maximum power compared 
to that for an unsupported Pt based fuel cell [2].  
2.1.2 Nano-enhancement of Electrolyte Membrane 
Performance 
 
The performance of PEMFC is dependent on the 
proton conductivity, ion exchange capacity and water 
uptake of the electrolyte membrane. Inorganic-organic 
hybrid nanocomposite membranes generated  substan-
tial  research interest  due to their potential of having a 
wide range of physical, chemical, thermal and mechani-
cal properties. Inorganic-organic nanocomposite mem-
branes comprising of nanosize inorganic phase/building 
block often demonstrate interesting properties due to 
nano scale of constituent phases, high interfacial area 
and synergetic properties. The structural and physio-
chemical properties and hence the performance of such 
composite membranes depends on their composition, size 
of the inorganic particle, interfacial interactions etc.  
Hybridization of sub-micro and nano particles of in-
organic gel with functional polymer (example Sulfonat-
ed poly ether ether ketone (SPEEK)) for fuel cell mem-
brane electrolyte enhances its proton conductivity, wa-
ter uptake and ion exchange capacity. Fig. 3 shows 
almost 50% enhancement of value of proton conductivi-
ty of phosphosilicate gel-SPEEK electrolyte membrane 
by varying the particle size of inorganic gel from sub-
micrometer to nanometer range.  
 
 
 
Fig. 3 – Effect of particle size of Phosphosilicate gel on the 
proton conductivity of the composite membrane 
 
Nano-structuring improves proton transport behav-
ior even at lower humidity conditions, allows higher 
loading of inorganic gel and improves the current vs 
voltage and power vs current characteristics. Almost 
50% enhancement in power generation is achieved by 
replacing the composite hybrid membrane with coarse 
sub-micrometer size phosphosilicate particles by a nano 
composite membrane comprising of less than 10 nm par-
ticles (Fig. 4). Percent enhancement varies exponentially 
with reduction in the size of inorganic building block [4]. 
 
2.2 Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials for Hy-
drogen Storage 
 
A two-dimensional, single-layer sheet of sp2 hybrid-
ized carbon atoms namely Graphene nanosheet or  re-
duced Graphene Oxide and its hybridized variants 
have attracted tremendous attention and research in-
terest in different fields of energy engineering among 
others. Interest in Graphene’s wonderful physical 
properties, chemical tunability, and potential for appli-
cations in a variety of high impact energy applications  
Folded 
Graphene 
Nano 
Sheet 
  NANOTECHNOLOGY AND NANOMATERIALS FOR NEW AND SUSTAINABLE… PROC. NAP 1, 04NEA09 (2012) 
 
 
04NEA09-3 
 
 
Fig. 4 – Effect of phosphosilicate gel particle size on Power 
density versus Current density for the fuel cell  
 
have promising potentials in the future. The synthesis, 
characterization of Reduced Graphene Oxide and Gra-
phene nanosheet as well as Graphene derived Nano-
composites has already been achieved using graphite 
oxidation, ultrasonic exfoliation and chemical reduction 
and other chemical approaches. 
Graphene-based nanomaterials have recently 
shown fascinating applications as electrochemical sen-
sors and in Hydrogen storage [5,6]. Owing to the sur-
prising electronic transport property and high electro-
catalytic activity of graphene, the electrochemical reac-
tions of analyte are greatly promoted on graphene film, 
resulting in enhanced voltammetric response [7,8]. 
Moreover, the electrochemical properties of graphene 
can be effectively modified by integration with other 
functional nanomaterials such as catalyst nanoparti-
cles to produce versatile electrochemical  performances 
[9-13]. Nanostructured Graphene have received contin-
uous interest as potential hydrogen storage media.  
Out of the variety of composites that need to be re-
searched upon, attempts were made with various types 
of graphene_PANI composites and they showed en-
hanced electrochemical characteristics as electrode 
materials for energy storage devices.  
The Transmission Electrone Microscope (TEM) im-
ages of Graphene-PANI is given in the following figure. 
FTIR is performed for graphene (G), graphene oxide 
(GO) and G-PANI. The results obtained are as given in 
Fig. 6. The figure shows the FTIR image of GO and 
graphene sheet. The oxygen-containing functional 
 
 
 
Fig. 5 – TEM images of G-PANI (200 nm) 
 
Fig. 6 – FTIR results for Graphene-PANI nanocomposites 
 
groups of graphite oxide were indicated by the bands at 
1730, 1382, 1240 and 1062 cm−1, which correspond to C 
O stretching vibrations, C–O–H deformation peak, C–
OH stretching peak and C–O stretching peak, respec-
tively. Oxygen containing functional groups were al-
most removed in the process of reduction with hydra-
zine hydrate, and thus the graphite oxide was trans-
formed into graphene sheet in the syntheses. 
For the FTIR spectrum of the Gr–PANI Nano com-
posite, the C–N and C-C stretching of the quinonoid 
and benzenoid units appeared at 1559 cm−1 and 1478 
cm−1, respectively. The band at 1292 cm−1 is assigned 
to the C–N stretching of the benzenoid unit. The broad 
band at 3440 cm−1 can be assigned to the overlapping of 
the strong adsorption of the N–H stretching vibrations 
of PANI and OH groups of graphene. 
The amount of hydrogen storage is characterized by 
the analysis of TEM, SEM, XRD and TGA results.  The 
results for Graphene-PANI nanocomposites will be dis-
cussed in the present presentation. 
Other hydrogen storage nanomaterials like boron 
derivatives, amine boranes, carbon nanotubes etc. have 
been cited in the present overview. 
 
2.3 Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials for Hy-
drogen Generation 
 
During the development of  dehydrogenation of hy-
drogen storage complexes like dimethylamine-borane, 
nanoparticle catalysts like ruthenium (III) chloride to 
the hydrogen storing complexes causes substantial en-
hancement of hydrogen production. Nanocatalysts pro-
vide higher proportion of surface active atoms resulting 
in enhanced catalytic activity leading to faster hydro-
gen generation. 
Another recently developed nanomaterial is  molyb-
denum disulphide nanoparticles hybridized on gra-
phene or reduced graphene oxide (RGO). Flexible gra-
phene oxide sheets act as an ideal substrate for molyb-
denum disulphide nanoparticles. The generated molyb-
denum disulphide on reduced graphene oxide hybrid 
has a very high electrocatalytic activity for the hydro-
gen evolution reaction. The very high value of the ex-
perimental Tafel slope shows significant increase of the 
rate of electrochemical reaction.  
Photocatalytic hydrogen evolution from sea water or 
salt water using nanocatalysts like ZnSnOx(OH)yZnO 
impregnated with electron donor sulfide ion (Na2S–
Na2SO3) etc holds considerable promise for futuristic 
generation of  hydrogen.  
 S. GANGULY, K. KARGUPTA, D. BANERJEE PROC. NAP 1, 04NEA09 (2012) 
 
 
04NEA09-4 
3. THERMOELECTRIC ENERGY 
 
Thermoelectric materials have recently attracted 
research efforts due to their unique properties of mu-
tual conversion between temperature gradient and 
electricity. The advantages of using thermoelectric ma-
terials arise due to their reliability, miniaturized mod-
ules and environment friendly nature. The efficiency of 
thermoelectric material is quantitatively related to 
figure of merit Z = S c/k = P/k where S is the thermoe-
lectric power, c is the electrical conductivity, k is the 
thermal conductivity and P is the power factor. Inter-
estingly, nanostructuring of material enhances both S 
and P due to quantum confinement. Size effect leads to 
carrier confinement. Selective scattering and interface 
scattering reduce the thermal conductivity more than 
the electrical conductivity and thus enhance the figure 
of merit. Bismuth telluride is the best known thermoe-
lectric material for room temperature applications.  
With the advent of conducting polymers, research 
on hybridization gained significance in the field of 
thermoelectricity. Consequently, a wide number of con-
ducting polymers, such as, polyacetylene, poly (p- phe-
nylene), polypyrrole, polyaniline and many more, has 
been studied. Conducting polymers are potential ther-
moelectric materials due to their low thermal conduc-
tivity compared to that of inorganic materials.  
 
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500
-0.1
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
1760 2400
827
540
3400
3200
1630
1030
1350
 
 
A
b
s
o
rb
a
n
c
e
Wavenumber (cm
-1
)
 PANI+ Bi
2
Te
3
          
 
 
Fig. 7 – FTIR spectra of PANI/ Bi2Te3 composite 
 
 
Fig. 8 – TEM micrographs of PANI/Bi2Te3 composite 
The transport properties of the conducting polymers 
are greatly influenced by the process of doping with 
different materials. Polyaniline (PANI) is a very at-
tracting polymer for its diversifying structure, facile 
synthesis, environmental stability and redox reversibil-
ity, involving the exchange of protons and electrons. It 
has attracted much attention due to its possible appli-
cations in electrochromic display, schottky diodes, sen-
sors, optoelectronics devices and electromagnetic 
shielding. For the improvement and enhancement of 
the properties of PANI, different protonic acids have 
been used as dopants. 
Nanoenhancement of properties of PANI, doped 
with inorganic bismuth nitrate with different concen-
tration (weight ratio) have been reported in literature 
and has promising potential as futuristic material in 
thermoelectric research [14-16]. 
 
 
 
Fig. 9 – SEM of  PANI/Bi2Te3 composite 
 
4. OTHER NEW ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES 
 
4.1 Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials for Geo-
thermal Energy 
The energy contained in the core of the earth pro-
vides a source of inexhaustible energy and has the po-
tential to meet all the energy demands of the future. 
However, the major problems encountered in the field of 
geothermal energy utilization is the requirement of deep 
borings often causing tremors or earthquakes. Recent 
research have found that nanostructures of certain ma-
terials can encapsulate or absorb substantially higher 
orders of energy as compared to the normal thermal flu-
ids. This observation opens up a range of future research 
prospects of using less deep borings and nanomaterials 
to utilize geothermal energy. 
 
4.2 Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials for  
Solar Energy and Photovoltaics 
 
Photovoltaics involve the engineering expertise to 
generate electricity from light and recently it is  develop-
ing into an important industrial product of the future. 
Wafer based crystalline Si cells are presently used. The 
high capital costs and operational costs limit the use of 
this technology today. The low efficiency of solar cells 
and the expensive capital investments for large-scale 
electricity generation makes it a less popular option to-
day. However, the cost of these cells is likely decrease in 
the future by using thinner wafers and nanocomposite 
devices with higher conversion efficiency.  
100 nm 
PANI 
Bi2Te
3 
  NANOTECHNOLOGY AND NANOMATERIALS FOR NEW AND SUSTAINABLE… PROC. NAP 1, 04NEA09 (2012) 
 
 
04NEA09-5 
5. CONCLUSIONS 
 
The current research achievements in several new 
and sustainable energy engineering directions have 
been explored in this presentation. It was interesting to 
observe that nanotechnology and nanomaterials largely 
augment and improve the promise and potential of the-
se emerging new horizons of energy research for appli-
cation in commercial scale in the future. Several new 
hybridized nanomaterials and nanotechnologies have 
been cited in this presentation. 
 
AKNOWLEDGEMENTS 
 
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support from 
Department of Science and Technology, India and Uni-
versiti Technologi PETRONAS, Malaysia. 
 
 
REFERENCES 
 
1. L.F. Dong, R.R. Sanganna Gari, Z. Li, M.M. Craig, 
S.F. Hou, Carbon 48, 781(2010).  
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3. E.J. Yoo, T. Okata, T. Akita, M. Kohyama, J. Nakamura, 
I. Honma, Nano Letters 9, 2255 (2009). 
4. C. Dhole, A. Nando, K. Kargupta, S. Ganguly, J. Nano 
Electron. Phys. 4 No1, 01015 (2012). 
5. A.K. Geim, K.S. Novoselov  Nat. Mater. 6, 183 (2007). 
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7.  C. Lee , X. D. Wei , J. W. Kysar , J. Hone, Science 321, 
385 (2008). 
8. D. Li, R.B. Kaner, Science 320, 1170 (2008). 
9.  X.L. Li, X.R. Wang, L. Zhang, S.W. Lee, H.J. Dai, Science 
319, 1229 (2008). 
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T.J. Booth, T. Stauber, N.M.R. Peres, A.K. Geim, Science 
320, 1308 (2008). 
11. A.K. Geim, Science 324, 1530 (2009). 
12. X.S. Li, W.W. Cai, J.H. An, S. Kim, J. Nah, D.X.Yang, R. 
Piner, A. Velamakanni, I. Jung, E. Tutuc, S.K. Banerjee, 
L. Colombo, R.S. Ruoff, Science 324, 1312 (2009). 
13. K. Chung, C.-H. Lee, G.-C. Yi, Science 330, 655 (2010). 
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K. Kargupta, D. Banerjee, J. Electron. Mater. 38(3), 449 
(2009).  
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D. Banerjee, Materials Characterization 60, 1597 (2009). 
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thetic Metals 161, 275 (2011). 
 


English

Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials for New and Sustainable Energy Engineering

Electronic Sumy State University Institutional Repository

PROCEEDINGS OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE NANOMATERIALS: APPLICATIONS AND PROPERTIES Vol. 1 No 4, 04NEA09(5pp) (2012)   2304-1862/2012/1(4)04NEA09(5) 04NEA09-1  2012 Sumy State University Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials for New and Sustainable Energy Engineering   S. Ganguly1,*, K. Kargupta2, D. Banerjee3  1 Chemical Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Malaysia 2 Department of Chemical Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700 032, India 3 Department of Physics, Bengal Engineering & Science University, Shibpur, Howrah-711103, West Bengal, India  (Received 22 June 2012; published online 15 August 2012)  Role of nanotechnology and nanomaterials for utilization, storage and generation of hydrogen energy, generation of environment friendly thermoelectric power, generation of geothermal energy and photovolta-ic or solar energy has been explored. Graphene nanosheet has emerged as a promising material for Plati-num catalyst support of fuel cell to enhance electrochemically active surface area and power generation. Graphene and graphene based nanocomposites namely graphene-Polyaniline (PANI) are explored as prom-ising alternatives for hydrogen storage. Inorganic-organic nanocomposite electrolyte membranes compris-ing of nanosize inorganic building block offers higher proton conductivity, ion exchange capacity and en-hanced power generation when applied in a fuel cell. Nanostructured thermoelectric material enhances the power factor and figure of merit. Inorganic (bismuth telluride) –organic (conducting polymer) nanocompo-sites are explored as a new class of thermoelectric material.       Keywords: Energy engineering, sustainable, Nanotechnology, Nanomaterials, Hybrid, Hydrogen en-ergy, Thermoelectric, Geothermal, Nanocatalysts, Nanostructures, Photoelectric and photovoltaic, Con-ducting polymers.    PACS numbers: 88.30. – k, 88.30.mj, 72.15.Jf, 88.10.  – g                                                              * gangulysaibal2011@gmail.com 1. INTRODUCTION   Nanotechnology, nanomaterials and sustainable energy engineering may arguably be some of the most important topics to influence human life in the near foreseeable future. With the reducing reserves of con-ventional energy sources like oil, natural gas and coal, it becomes imperative to augment research efforts on new and sustainable energy sources. It is extremely interesting to note that all the new age energy sources like hydrogen energy, thermoelectric energy, geother-mal energy, photovoltaic and solar energy etc needs the help of nanotechnology and nanomaterials to augment the efficient storage, generation, utilization and per-haps even transmission in the future. Nanotechnology and nanomaterials add substantially the promise and potential of the new and sustainable energy utilization in commercial scale.  2. HYDROGEN ENERGY   2.1 Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials for Hy-drogen Utilization   In the wake of the emerging market potential for fuel cells and green energy generation using hydrogen as raw material, it becomes imperative to research up-on the development of nanomaterials to improve its real-life performance. The proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) and the phosphoric acid fuel cell (PAFC) are particularly in the focus of interest as some of the most promising power generator for a wide range of applications in transportation and in portable elec-tronics. These fuel cells convert the chemical energy of the fuel and oxidant into electrical energy. The major material components are the conductive electrolyte membrane and the catalysts/electrodes.  2.1.1 Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials for Fuel Cell Electrodes   In order to enhance catalytic activity and to reduce the usage of Pt-based catalysts, one strategy is to ex-plore novel carbon materials as catalyst supports and to effectively disperse Pt-based particles on these sup-ports. During the past several years, a few research groups have investigated graphene, one type of novel carbon nanostructures, as a catalyst support and have demonstrated that graphene can improve the electro-catalytic activity of Pt nanoparticles more effectively for oxidation than Vulcan XC-72R carbon black [1, 2, 3] in PEM Fuel Cell. Graphene is an exhilarating material; It is a 2D sin-gle layer of carbon atoms with the hexagonal packed structure. The carbon bonds are sp2 hybridized, where the in-plane σ C-C bond is one of the strongest bonds in materials and the out-of-plane π bond, which contributes to a delocalized network of electrons, is responsible for the electron conduction of graphene and provides the weak interaction among graphene layers or between graphene and substrate. It has a large theoretical specif-ic surface area (2630 m 2 g − 1), high intrinsic mobility (200 000 cm 2 v − 1 s − 1), high Young’s modulus (~1.0 TPa). Its high optical transmittance ( ~ 97.7%) and good electrical conductivity make it attractive for applications of transparent conductive electrodes.  To improve the energy efficiency and performance of fuel cell system, graphene as a catalyst support ma-terial is synthesized using a new method (combined form of Modified Hummers Method and Improved method ). Graphene is characterized using TEM, Ra-man Spectroscopy, FTIR, XRD. TEM images. Fig. 1 shows single and multilayer layer graphene sheets. Figure 2 shows the Raman Spectroscopy of graphene sheet. In the Raman spectrum the G band is broadened  S. GANGULY, K. KARGUPTA, D. BANERJEE PROC. NAP 1, 04NEA09 (2012)   04NEA09-2 and shifted upward to 1595 cm -1. At the same time, the intensity of the D band at 1350 cm-1 increases sub-stantially. These phenomena could be attributed to the significant decrease of the size of the in-plane sp2 do-mains due to oxidation and partially ordered graphite crystal structure of graphene nanosheets.       Fig. 1 – TEM analysis of Graphene    Fig. 2 – Raman Spectroscopy of Graphene  Dispersion of the electrocatalyst on graphene has been found to be useful for achieving relatively better performance in fuel cells. Almost 80% increase in elec-trochemical surface area (ECSA) can be achieved by us-ing graphene as a catalyst support [2]. It is reported in literature that the partially reduced GO-Pt based fuel cell delivered 60% enhanced maximum power compared to that for an unsupported Pt based fuel cell [2].  2.1.2 Nano-enhancement of Electrolyte Membrane Performance  The performance of PEMFC is dependent on the proton conductivity, ion exchange capacity and water uptake of the electrolyte membrane. Inorganic-organic hybrid nanocomposite membranes generated  substan-tial  research interest  due to their potential of having a wide range of physical, chemical, thermal and mechani-cal properties. Inorganic-organic nanocomposite mem-branes comprising of nanosize inorganic phase/building block often demonstrate interesting properties due to nano scale of constituent phases, high interfacial area and synergetic properties. The structural and physio-chemical properties and hence the performance of such composite membranes depends on their composition, size of the inorganic particle, interfacial interactions etc.  Hybridization of sub-micro and nano particles of in-organic gel with functional polymer (example Sulfonat-ed poly ether ether ketone (SPEEK)) for fuel cell mem-brane electrolyte enhances its proton conductivity, wa-ter uptake and ion exchange capacity. Fig. 3 shows almost 50% enhancement of value of proton conductivi-ty of phosphosilicate gel-SPEEK electrolyte membrane by varying the particle size of inorganic gel from sub-micrometer to nanometer range.     Fig. 3 – Effect of particle size of Phosphosilicate gel on the proton conductivity of the composite membrane  Nano-structuring improves proton transport behav-ior even at lower humidity conditions, allows higher loading of inorganic gel and improves the current vs voltage and power vs current characteristics. Almost 50% enhancement in power generation is achieved by replacing the composite hybrid membrane with coarse sub-micrometer size phosphosilicate particles by a nano composite membrane comprising of less than 10 nm par-ticles (Fig. 4). Percent enhancement varies exponentially with reduction in the size of inorganic building block [4].  2.2 Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials for Hy-drogen Storage  A two-dimensional, single-layer sheet of sp2 hybrid-ized carbon atoms namely Graphene nanosheet or  re-duced Graphene Oxide and its hybridized variants have attracted tremendous attention and research in-terest in different fields of energy engineering among others. Interest in Graphene’s wonderful physical properties, chemical tunability, and potential for appli-cations in a variety of high impact energy applications  Folded Graphene Nano Sheet   NANOTECHNOLOGY AND NANOMATERIALS FOR NEW AND SUSTAINABLE… PROC. NAP 1, 04NEA09 (2012)   04NEA09-3   Fig. 4 – Effect of phosphosilicate gel particle size on Power density versus Current density for the fuel cell   have promising potentials in the future. The synthesis, characterization of Reduced Graphene Oxide and Gra-phene nanosheet as well as Graphene derived Nano-composites has already been achieved using graphite oxidation, ultrasonic exfoliation and chemical reduction and other chemical approaches. Graphene-based nanomaterials have recently shown fascinating applications as electrochemical sen-sors and in Hydrogen storage [5,6]. Owing to the sur-prising electronic transport property and high electro-catalytic activity of graphene, the electrochemical reac-tions of analyte are greatly promoted on graphene film, resulting in enhanced voltammetric response [7,8]. Moreover, the electrochemical properties of graphene can be effectively modified by integration with other functional nanomaterials such as catalyst nanoparti-cles to produce versatile electrochemical  performances [9-13]. Nanostructured Graphene have received contin-uous interest as potential hydrogen storage media.  Out of the variety of composites that need to be re-searched upon, attempts were made with various types of graphene_PANI composites and they showed en-hanced electrochemical characteristics as electrode materials for energy storage devices.  The Transmission Electrone Microscope (TEM) im-ages of Graphene-PANI is given in the following figure. FTIR is performed for graphene (G), graphene oxide (GO) and G-PANI. The results obtained are as given in Fig. 6. The figure shows the FTIR image of GO and graphene sheet. The oxygen-containing functional    Fig. 5 – TEM images of G-PANI (200 nm)  Fig. 6 – FTIR results for Graphene-PANI nanocomposites  groups of graphite oxide were indicated by the bands at 1730, 1382, 1240 and 1062 cm−1, which correspond to C O stretching vibrations, C–O–H deformation peak, C–OH stretching peak and C–O stretching peak, respec-tively. Oxygen containing functional groups were al-most removed in the process of reduction with hydra-zine hydrate, and thus the graphite oxide was trans-formed into graphene sheet in the syntheses. For the FTIR spectrum of the Gr–PANI Nano com-posite, the C–N and C-C stretching of the quinonoid and benzenoid units appeared at 1559 cm−1 and 1478 cm−1, respectively. The band at 1292 cm−1 is assigned to the C–N stretching of the benzenoid unit. The broad band at 3440 cm−1 can be assigned to the overlapping of the strong adsorption of the N–H stretching vibrations of PANI and OH groups of graphene. The amount of hydrogen storage is characterized by the analysis of TEM, SEM, XRD and TGA results.  The results for Graphene-PANI nanocomposites will be dis-cussed in the present presentation. Other hydrogen storage nanomaterials like boron derivatives, amine boranes, carbon nanotubes etc. have been cited in the present overview.  2.3 Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials for Hy-drogen Generation  During the development of  dehydrogenation of hy-drogen storage complexes like dimethylamine-borane, nanoparticle catalysts like ruthenium (III) chloride to the hydrogen storing complexes causes substantial en-hancement of hydrogen production. Nanocatalysts pro-vide higher proportion of surface active atoms resulting in enhanced catalytic activity leading to faster hydro-gen generation. Another recently developed nanomaterial is  molyb-denum disulphide nanoparticles hybridized on gra-phene or reduced graphene oxide (RGO). Flexible gra-phene oxide sheets act as an ideal substrate for molyb-denum disulphide nanoparticles. The generated molyb-denum disulphide on reduced graphene oxide hybrid has a very high electrocatalytic activity for the hydro-gen evolution reaction. The very high value of the ex-perimental Tafel slope shows significant increase of the rate of electrochemical reaction.  Photocatalytic hydrogen evolution from sea water or salt water using nanocatalysts like ZnSnOx(OH)yZnO impregnated with electron donor sulfide ion (Na2S–Na2SO3) etc holds considerable promise for futuristic generation of  hydrogen.   S. GANGULY, K. KARGUPTA, D. BANERJEE PROC. NAP 1, 04NEA09 (2012)   04NEA09-4 3. THERMOELECTRIC ENERGY  Thermoelectric materials have recently attracted research efforts due to their unique properties of mu-tual conversion between temperature gradient and electricity. The advantages of using thermoelectric ma-terials arise due to their reliability, miniaturized mod-ules and environment friendly nature. The efficiency of thermoelectric material is quantitatively related to figure of merit Z = S c/k = P/k where S is the thermoe-lectric power, c is the electrical conductivity, k is the thermal conductivity and P is the power factor. Inter-estingly, nanostructuring of material enhances both S and P due to quantum confinement. Size effect leads to carrier confinement. Selective scattering and interface scattering reduce the thermal conductivity more than the electrical conductivity and thus enhance the figure of merit. Bismuth telluride is the best known thermoe-lectric material for room temperature applications.  With the advent of conducting polymers, research on hybridization gained significance in the field of thermoelectricity. Consequently, a wide number of con-ducting polymers, such as, polyacetylene, poly (p- phe-nylene), polypyrrole, polyaniline and many more, has been studied. Conducting polymers are potential ther-moelectric materials due to their low thermal conduc-tivity compared to that of inorganic materials.   0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500-0.10.00.10.20.30.40.50.60.71760 240082754034003200163010301350  AbsorbanceWavenumber (cm-1) PANI+ Bi2Te3            Fig. 7 – FTIR spectra of PANI/ Bi2Te3 composite   Fig. 8 – TEM micrographs of PANI/Bi2Te3 composite The transport properties of the conducting polymers are greatly influenced by the process of doping with different materials. Polyaniline (PANI) is a very at-tracting polymer for its diversifying structure, facile synthesis, environmental stability and redox reversibil-ity, involving the exchange of protons and electrons. It has attracted much attention due to its possible appli-cations in electrochromic display, schottky diodes, sen-sors, optoelectronics devices and electromagnetic shielding. For the improvement and enhancement of the properties of PANI, different protonic acids have been used as dopants. Nanoenhancement of properties of PANI, doped with inorganic bismuth nitrate with different concen-tration (weight ratio) have been reported in literature and has promising potential as futuristic material in thermoelectric research [14-16].    Fig. 9 – SEM of  PANI/Bi2Te3 composite  4. OTHER NEW ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES  4.1 Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials for Geo-thermal Energy The energy contained in the core of the earth pro-vides a source of inexhaustible energy and has the po-tential to meet all the energy demands of the future. However, the major problems encountered in the field of geothermal energy utilization is the requirement of deep borings often causing tremors or earthquakes. Recent research have found that nanostructures of certain ma-terials can encapsulate or absorb substantially higher orders of energy as compared to the normal thermal flu-ids. This observation opens up a range of future research prospects of using less deep borings and nanomaterials to utilize geothermal energy.  4.2 Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials for  Solar Energy and Photovoltaics  Photovoltaics involve the engineering expertise to generate electricity from light and recently it is  develop-ing into an important industrial product of the future. Wafer based crystalline Si cells are presently used. The high capital costs and operational costs limit the use of this technology today. The low efficiency of solar cells and the expensive capital investments for large-scale electricity generation makes it a less popular option to-day. However, the cost of these cells is likely decrease in the future by using thinner wafers and nanocomposite devices with higher conversion efficiency.  100 nm PANI Bi2Te3   NANOTECHNOLOGY AND NANOMATERIALS FOR NEW AND SUSTAINABLE… PROC. NAP 1, 04NEA09 (2012)   04NEA09-5 5. CONCLUSIONS  The current research achievements in several new and sustainable energy engineering directions have been explored in this presentation. It was interesting to observe that nanotechnology and nanomaterials largely augment and improve the promise and potential of the-se emerging new horizons of energy research for appli-cation in commercial scale in the future. Several new hybridized nanomaterials and nanotechnologies have been cited in this presentation.  AKNOWLEDGEMENTS  The authors gratefully acknowledge the support from Department of Science and Technology, India and Uni-versiti Technologi PETRONAS, Malaysia.   REFERENCES  1. L.F. Dong, R.R. Sanganna Gari, Z. Li, M.M. Craig, S.F. 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Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials for New and Sustainable Energy Engineering

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