Doctoral Student Working On Producing Better Solar Cells

Doctoral student Braden Bills speaks on behalf of associate professor Qi Hua Fan in electrical engineering who has been working to find applications for thin-film technologies developed by the optoelectronics groups at the Center for Advanced Photovoltaics. Fan is finding ways to utilize the thin film technologies that he has developed to produce better solar cells - the material that both reflects and absorbs light and to apply his techniques to the way that computer screens are developed. He has a patent-pending deposition technique that has been licensed to Applied Nanofilms, LLC, for which Bills is the lead research and design engineer. Fan and Bills are working together on a proof-of-concept grant to the deposition technique to make supercapacitors with biochar, which will greatly reduce the cost of this energy storage device.