Titania Nanotubes go Commercial

Seven years ago, physics pro­fessor Latika Mennon’s first grad­uate stu­dent said he wanted to “change the world.”

| 2 min read
Register for free to listen to this article
Listen with Speechify
0:00
2:00

Seven years ago, Northeastern University physics pro­fessor Latika Mennon’s first grad­uate stu­dent said he wanted to “change the world.” She knew of her exper­tise in making nanoporous alu­minum oxide and believed an anal­o­gous system with tita­nium dioxide, or titania, could be useful in the devel­op­ment of fuel cells and solar panels.

“Alu­minum is more like an insu­lator,” Menon explained. “For solar cells you need semi­con­duc­tors. Titania is a semiconductor.”

Want to stay up to date on the latest lab management news?

Subscribe to our free Lab Manager Monitor Newsletter.

Is the form not loading? If you use an ad blocker or browser privacy features, try turning them off and refresh the page.

Using simple elec­tro­chem­ical methods, Menon’s team devel­oped a mate­rial made of neatly aligned, hollow, titania nan­otubes. “It’s an array of tubes,” she said. “Just like lots of cylin­ders, or test tubes, arranged in parallel.”

Menon explained that applying a voltage to a solu­tion of chlorine-containing salts causes a piece of sub­merged tita­nium foil to oxi­dize on the sur­face. Under cer­tain con­di­tions, the titania will morph into the highly aligned struc­ture she has described. “Since it’s a self-assembly process, we don’t have to worry about it, ” Menon said.

Latika Menon, Northeastern University
Physics professor Latika Menon studies titania nanotube arrays, shown here in cross section. Each circle depicts a separate nanotube. Unlike other nanotube systems, such as carbon, titania nanotubes arrange themselves into highly organized collections, like a box full of drinking straws, under particular electrochemical conditions. Latika Menon, Northeastern University  

The method is straight­for­ward, cost effec­tive and, per­haps most impor­tantly, envi­ron­men­tally friendly. As such, Menon’s work dove­tails with Northeastern’s focus on con­ducting use-inspired research that solves global chal­lenges in health, secu­rity and sustainability.

Menon and her research team orig­i­nally designed the mate­rial to be used in alter­na­tive energy appli­ca­tions, but she has found that it could be used in a host of other applications.

Backed by a $50,000 grant from the Inno­va­tion Corps pro­gram of the National Sci­ence Foun­da­tion, she is cur­rently working to bring the tech­nology into a com­mer­cial setting.

Menon’s research team com­prises Moni­dipa Ghosh, a research assis­tant, and entre­pre­neurial mentor Prashanth Makaram, cofounder of the biotech startup Alpha Szen­szor, Inc., and a past member of pro­fessor Ahmed Busnaina’s lab in Northeastern’s Center for High Rate Nanoman­u­fac­turing.

Menon sug­gested that the technology’s tubular plat­form could be used as a filter, noting that its uni­form mor­phology makes it ideal for this par­tic­ular application.

According to Menon, the titania nan­otubes’ bio­com­pat­ible mate­rial makes it appealing for use in agri­cul­tural or cos­metics appli­ca­tions or as an alter­na­tive hydrogen gen­er­a­tion cat­a­lyst for fuel cells, which cur­rently use expen­sive plat­inum wires.

She also said that the nan­otubes can be easily removed from the foil sur­face as thin, cohe­sive sheets. This prop­erty could make the tech­nology useful for a variety of appli­ca­tions, including portable, flex­ible pho­to­voltaics and solar cells.

More­over, the color of these thin sheets is deter­mined by the diam­eter of the nan­otube. Since the dimen­sions can be con­trolled through tai­lored exper­i­mental con­di­tions, Menon’s team could con­ceiv­ably design pho­to­voltaic “paints” for the building and auto­mo­tive industries.

Loading Next Article...
Loading Next Article...

CURRENT ISSUE - January/February 2025

Energizing Leadership in Action

The science-backed behaviors that help leaders inspire thriving teams and organizations

Lab Manager January/February 2025 Cover Image