Electrospun semiconducting nanofibers as an attractive material for renewable energy applications

The energy demand of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has significantly increased in the last several years and anticipated to be tripled by 2030. This energy hike is caused by high population growth, greater urbanization, and rapidly growing industrialization across the country. Despite the largest oil exporter and producer in the world, the Kingdom has planned to develop sustainable energy technologies to cater the significant portion of the growing energy needs through renewable resources. Nanotechnology provides novel solutions to harvest renewable energy through advanced technologies. In particular, semiconducting nanofiberous materials produced by the simple electrospinning are becoming promising candidates to solve the energy issues. This work highlights the fabrication and characterization of electrospun zinc oxide nanofibers. These types of materials have wide applications in energy devices such as fuel cell, dye-sensitized solar cell, Li-Ion batteries and super capacitors.