RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERA: A SURVEY OF FACILITIES, PROBLEMS AND INSTITUTIONAL ISSUES IN THE SYNTYHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF SODIUM SUPERIONIC CONDUCTOR NASICON,

Abstract

The importance of materials synthesis and characterization for the purpose of tailoring them fro specific applications which could potentially assuage the various problems faced by and affecting our bludgeoning economy cannot be overemphasized, particularly, inn terms if identifying and developing materials that could have the potential to com0plement our dependence on fossil fuels and thus alleviate the recurrent and persistent fuel crises inn the energy sector. Moreover, there is enormous research activity taking place in various fields to develop alternative and renewable sources of energy with enormous implications from our revenue base. The study of NASICON for energy applications in diverse fields such as fuel cells fro transportation, biomaterials, nuclear waste demobilization and environmental concerns, among others, has been actively pursued in recent times. However, the effort required to synthesize and characterize these materials locally is enormously daunting in terms of information, chemicals, facilities, experts, constant power supply and unfavorable institutional framework suitable for the successful implementation of research. This paper explores and highlights these problems based on an ongoing research on Sodium Zirconium Phosphate (NZP), a member of the NASICON family and profers solutions to them.