Achievement

Since the students are in their first year of graduate school, they have spent only a small fraction of their effort to research; however, some successful outcomes have been achieved. Each has successfully prepared copper indium disulfide (CIS) nanocrystal ink based solar cells, by carefully following a multistep synthesis and fabrication process. Bryce Walker and Hye Yeon Park are now working on the specific aspects of CIGS solar cells to further increase their efficiency. Wei-Chang Yang has successfully synthesized nanocrystal inks of copper-zinc-tin disulfide (CZTS) semiconductors and is preparing solar cells from these materials. Unlike most thin film semiconducting materials, CZTS is composed of earth abundant elements and an efficient CZTS based solar cell will be very attractive. Our goal is to identify scientific/technical fundamentals that will lead to attractive CZTS solar cells.