Low Cost Copper Transparent Electrode Materials (LOCUST)

This project will produce low cost and high performance transparent conductive electrode (TCE) using copper nanowires (NW) for solar photovoltaic (PV) cells. TCE is essential for PV cells, currently met by silver and indium tin oxide (ITO). However, ITO is expensive, with limited supply, and tends to degrade in performance under stress, so there is great interests in alternative technology. Silver nanowire TCEs have been shown to be cheaper to produce and have better sheet conductance at the same transparency than ITO. Copper costs 1/100 of Ag or In, and Cu nanowire (Cu NW TCE) promises to be a more sustainable and lower cost system. The project aligns NW science in Cranfield University (CU) with industrial processing experience and capabilities on PV solar cells with industrial partners for development of Cu NW TCE. Cu NW and patterned thin films of Cu NW will be produced in CU. Coating to prevent oxidation of the CuNW will be developed by Applied Materials Technology, (AMT) , and device integration in both thin film and Si PV will be carried out by specialists Exergy and Solaris Photonics. Prototype devices will be evaluated against current technologies.

This project aims to develop Cu nanowire (NW) transparent conductive electrode (TCE) technology through a consortium allies science in Cranfield University with industrial experience and capabilities in three industrial partners, namely Applied Materials Technology (AMT), Exergy and Solaris Photonics (SP), for applications in PV solar cells. Through the combination of the strengths and capabilities of these consortium partners, we aim to accelerate the development of the Cu NW TCE technology. This can benefit academia, industries and the wide society as it is a multidiscipline project on
research and develop innovative technology.
The innovative technology developed during the project will be the property of the consortium. It is anticipated that the partners will continue to work together after the conclusion of the project and to further develop the Cu NW TCE from
feasibility study into practical industrial products.

AMT, SP and Exergy will explore with its current customer base where appropriate Cu NW TCEs can be trialled as a direct replacement of Silver or ITO for PV cells. Other trails for display, touchscreen, EMI shielding and anti-fog applications TCE as a direct replacement for ITO will also be pursued when appropriate. Feedback from the customers and the experience in integrating Cu NW TCEs will enable us to target the most appropriate markets that are straight forward to migrate. It will also highlight areas where further work needs to be done to overcome process limitations and how this should be achieved. Barring commercially sensitive materials, the outcomes from this project will be communicated to academic, industrial and wider community by:

(i) Academic routes including journals and scientific conferences. We will use open access publication to improve the
accessibility for industrial practioners.
(ii) Internet routes including direct e-mails, websites, blogs...etc.
(iii) Network routes. The results will also be disseminated through the data repository for networks such as the EPSRC
funded Energy Harvesting Network, to which Zhaorong Huang is a member.
(iv) Popular media: Since PV energy, and many consumer products use TCE, and many of the general public know something about them, major progress and results will be communicated to a wide audience via, for example, trade magazines and learned society magazines for example IOP magazine "Physics Today", press release...etc. Zhaorong Huang already contributed comments in an article on Chemistry World.
(http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2012/March/).