Create
Design Project Gallery
Flexible Metal Electrodes for Spray-Cast Colloidal Quantum Dot Solar Cells
- Program: Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Course: EN.520.506 ECE Undergraduate Research
- Year: 2025
Project Description:
This project explores scalable alternatives to traditional gold evaporation for forming top contacts in colloidal quantum dot (CQD) solar cells. Instead of using costly and inflexible thermal evaporation, silver paste was applied using two methods: painting through a 3D-printed mask and stamping with a PDMS stamp. Devices were fabricated with and without a mild annealing step to assess improvements in contact performance. A second silver paste was also tested to evaluate material effects. While all devices showed lower performance compared to evaporated gold controls, annealing improved painted contact results, and all methods produced functional solar cells. These findings bring us closer to low-cost, scalable CQD solar cell fabrication compatible with flexible substrates.
Project Photo:
Flexible Metal Electrodes for Spray-Cast Colloidal Quantum Dot Solar Cells