Nanofiber: A Ground-breaking Finding for Solar Energy Harvesting

Nanofiber is a one-dimensional structure with ranges approximately between 50-500 nm. Currently, it is being explored for diverse applications like solar energy harvesting (photovoltaic or photocatalysis), water filtration, face masks, water-oil separation, body armour for defence people, etc.

Think of cooking a whole chicken slab. While you are cooking this slab, it will consume a sufficient amount of time and energy. But if you slice this chicken into many pieces and then cook it, the cooking time will be shortened and properly cooked with minimum energy consumption. The reason behind this fact, while you are cooking the chicken slab in pieces, the surface area of the chicken slab is increased without changing the volume of this chicken and because of the higher surface area, all the cut pieces are more reactive with thermal energy which helps to cook faster saving time and energy.

Similar to this analogy, the nanofiber of any material possesses a large surface area without affecting the overall volume. Due to their high aspect ratio, charge transfer kinetics are enhanced in light-harvesting processes, aiding in minimizing surface recombination loss and decreasing charge buildup. Metal oxide semiconductors such as Tin Oxide (SnO2), Titanium Oxide (TiO2), and Zinc Oxide (ZnO) are demonstrating promising results in photovoltaic and photocatalytic applications.