Black Gold: Indian Scientists at TIFR develop gold variant capable of harnessing solar energy and purifying sea water

Furring applications of India's favourite metal - gold, apart from jewellery, Indian scientists at Mumbai's Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) have developed 'black gold' which could potentially be used for solar energy harvesting to desalinating seawater, according to scientific journal 'Chemical Science'.

scientists have rearranged size and gaps between gold naparticles and developed a new material which has capacity to absorb light and carbon dioxide which has given a black appearance to yellow, shiny metal, according to 'Chemical Science'.

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Black Gold development process

Talking India Science Wire, team le- Prof. Vivek Polshettiwar has explained how just by tweaking particle distances in gold by optimizing nucleation-growth step, 'black gold' was achieved.

"We have t doped gold naparticles with any or material or ded or materials. We varied inter-particle distance between gold naparticles using a cycle-by-cycle growth approach by optimizing nucleation-growth step, using dendritic fibrous na silica, whose fibres were used as deposition site for gold naparticles," said Polshettiwar.

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Applications of Black Gold

As per scientists, applications of 'black gold' in solar energy is due to its ability to absorb entire visible and near-infrared region of solar light as it has optimal size and inter-particle coupling. Polshettiwar ded that 'Black gold' could also act as a catalyst and could convert carbon dioxide into methane at atmospheric pressure and temperature using solar energy.

“If we develop an artificial tree with leaves me out of 'black gold', it can perform artificial photosynsis, capturing carbon dioxide and converting it into fuel and or useful chemicals,” ded Polshettiwar.  

Expounding on 'Black gold's ability to be used as a na-heater to convert seawater into potable water, scientists have said that water could be purified using black gold's ability to harness solar energy and to subsequently produce steam necessary for purification process.

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Research team behind discovery:

research team included Mahak Dhiman, Ayan Maity, Anirban Das, Rajesh Belgamwar, Bhagyashree Chalke and Vivek Polshettiwar (TIFT), Yeonhee Lee, Kyunjong Sim and Jwa-Min Nam (Seoul National University) and was funded by Department of Science and Techlogy (DST) and Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), according to India Science Wire.

Photo: India Science Wire