UNH, Conductive Compounds win grant for solar product project

Sep 7, 2012 - Conductive Compounds Inc, a provider of materials for the electronics industry, and researchers from the University of New Hampshire have recently received a USD-450,000 (EUR 356,000) grant to fund the development of solar panels with greater conductivity characteristics.

The three-year grant, provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF), is to support the engineering of silver nanoparticles that can be used for screen-printing onto photovoltaic (PV) solar panels.

The team of researchers led by Dale Barkey, professor of chemical engineering at UNH, Don Banfield, chief executive of Conductive Compounds, and Xiaowei Teng, assistant professor of chemical engineering, plan to use the grant to explore the specific properties of nanoparticles of silver measuring only 100 atoms in diameter. These particles melt at a lower temperature than silver powder, which would lead to lower manufacturing costs of PV panels, the researchers believe. Moreover, the nanoparticles’ surfaces are highly active, considerably increasing the speed of the current’s passage.

The grant, awarded under the Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) programme, will support a PhD student and six undergraduates working in Barkey’s and Teng’s labs.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.791)

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