The various solution-based processes, spin coating, inkjet printing, microreactor assisted nanoparticle deposition (MANDTM) and spin-successive ionic layer absorption and reaction (Spin-SILAR) were used to demonstrate thin film electronics and anti-reflective coatings. Several aspects of thin film transistors (TFTs) were tested including a range of temperatures, annealing atmosphere, and deposition methods....
Photovoltaic (PV) cells have long been an attractive alternative for the consumption of fossil fuels but current manufacturing practices suffer from poor energy efficiency, large carbon footprints, low material utilization, high processing temperatures and high solvent usage. A critical step in PV production is the deposition of CdS as a...
The cross over from batch nanoparticle synthesis to continuous synthesis processes is crucial to the commercialization of these materials. This project reports comparative studies of batch and continuous synthese of copper nanoparticles by the polyol method. Continuous synthesis of copper nanoparticles was done utilizing a stainless steel micro-mixer that yielded...
The continuous microreactor-assisted solution deposition (MASD) process was used for the deposition of CdS thin films on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass. The MASD system, including a T-junction micromixer and a microchannel heat exchanger is capable of isolating the homogeneous particle precipitation from the heterogeneous surface reaction. The results show...
Cadmium sulfide (CdS) thin films are commonly used as buffer layers in thin film solar cells and can be produced by a number of solution and vacuum methods. We report the continuous solution deposition of CdS on fluorine-doped tin oxide coated glass substrates using Microreactor-Assisted Solution Deposition (MASD (TM)). A...
The need for clean and renewable fuel such as hydrogen is driven by a growing worldwide population and increasing air pollution from fossil fuels. One of the major barriers for the use of hydrogen in automotive industry is the storage of hydrogen. Physisorption is the most promising storage technique due...
Continuous microreactor-assisted solution deposition is demonstrated for the deposition
of CdS thin films on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) coated glass. The continuous flow
system consists of a microscale T-junction micromixer with the co-axial water circulation
heat exchanger to control the reacting chemical flux and optimize the heterogeneous surface
reaction. Dense,...
In this work, continuous synthesis routes for binary nanoparticles using advantages of microchannel mixing (low diffusion distances and higher mass transfer) and fast heating rates provided by ultrasound induced heating are investigated. In addition, the application of silica nanoparticles in anti-reflective coatings on glass and understanding the structure property-performance correlation...
Solution deposition offers an attractive, low temperature option in the cost effective production of thin film solar cells. Continuous microreactor-assisted solution deposition (MASD) was used to produce nanocrystalline cadmium sulfide (CdS) films on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) coated glass substrates with excellent uniformity. We report a novel liquid coating...
A new technique is developed to recover elemental tellurium (Te) from cadmium telluride (CdTe) which is abundantly available in photovoltaic semiconductor waste. The method is based on microchannel fluid flow with the use of a supported liquid membrane (SLM) between the donor (feed) and acceptor (strip) channels. A predictive theoretical...