Collaborative Research Project

This semester, Dr. Fekete, Dr. Katherine Duncan, and Cadet Kaneen Manuel participated in a collaborative, interdisciplinary project aimed at producing dye-sensitized solar cells. The three participants spent multiple hours in the laboratory producing solar cells based on a dye-sensitized titanium oxide anode and a platinum cathode. Their plan was to improve the procedure and start designing their own solar cells, to include the incorporation of a printed graphene electrode. Solar cells may ultimately be 3D printed on a transparent conductive oxide layer deposited on glass. The printed devices could be of any shape or form, to include, for example, reproducing a photograph. This emerging technology promises to be less expensive than the silicon-based alternative and it is hoped to lead to thin, flexible solar panels amenable to a wide variety of lighting conditions, such as indoors, making them suitable for applications beyond rooftops and solar-panel farms.