Low Cost Copper Transparent Electrode Materials (LOCUST)

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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.