Speaker
Description
Biotemplating is an effective method of nanostructuring hybrid
inorganic-organic materials. This approach allows the tuning of material properties like porosity or domain sizes. Therefore, parameters like
the electronic conductivity can be adjusted for different applications.
In this work, differently structured Titania thin films are investigated
for application in thermoelectric generators. Beta-lactoglobulin is a
bovine whey protein that is used as a template during sol-gel synthesis.
The Seebeck effect allows the conversion of waste heat into electrical
energy. State of the art thermoelectric materials are rare, toxic and
expensive. Biotemplated titania could provide a non-toxic and abundant alternative. To investigate the different titania morphologies, in
situ GISAXS, GIWAXS and SEM are used. In situ GISAXS printing
enables a time resolved investigation of the structure formation,
domain sizes and domain distances. UV-Vis and Pl are used to
analyze differences in the optical properties of the thin films. These
structural and optical changes are then correlated with measurements
of the Seebeck coefficient and the electrical conductivity.
