Overview
This PhD project aims to develop scalable and cost-effective manufacturing methods for efficient and stable graphene-coated perovskite solar cells.
About this opportunity
Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have stunned the scientific community by rocketing from obscurity to outperforming silicon, the technology that has dominated the industry for decades, in just ten years. But efficiency alone won’t change the world. The next great challenge is making these cells stable enough, cheap enough, and scalable enough to deploy at the gigawatt scale our planet urgently needs. One of the key advantages of PSCs is their compatibility with solution-based processing techniques, such as slot-die coating, which are well suited for roll-to-roll manufacturing to enable low-cost, high-throughput production.
Working in partnership with Solar Ethos Ltd., you will pioneer the use of a cutting-edge printable graphene-based material that replaces the costly, fragile materials holding perovskite solar cells back. Thus, eliminating expensive metal electrodes and unstable organic layers in a single stroke. The result: solar devices that are more efficient, more durable, and manufacturable at real-world scale.
Your research will feed directly into a commercial pipeline, with an industry partner actively invested in turning your findings into deployable technology
Our industry partner, Solar Ethos Ltd., is developing a printable graphene-based paste enhanced with functional nanomaterials. This material serves both as a conductive electrode and a protective barrier layer. Its use eliminates the need for expensive metal electrodes as well as unstable organic HTLs. More importantly, it significantly enhances environmental stability, directly addressing the key commercial challenge facing PSCs.
This PhD focus will be on incorporating Solar Ethos’s graphene-based paste to replace conventional electrodes and polymeric hole transport layers. The goal is to create a new class of efficient, stable, and scalable solar devices that are ready for commercial deployment.
This is an opportunity to contribute to next-generation solar energy technologies with real-world impact. You will play a central role in developing solar cells that are more affordable, robust, and sustainable.
About the group: Dr Hughes and her team specialise in developing new materials and fabrication techniques to produce perovskite solar cells. The team is carrying out an EPSRC funded feasibility study investigating scalable and green processing of perovskite solar cells. The group currently consists of one post doc and three PhD students. Dr García-Tuñón and her team funded by an UKRI future leaders fellowship specialise in the design and characterisation of complex fluids for advanced materials processing with a focus on newly discovered materials made in the Materials Innovation Factory. Her fellowship has enabled the establishment of a new complex fluids and advanced materials lab, hosting capital equipment for formulation, rheology, printing and post-processing.
About Solar Ethos: Solar Ethos Ltd. was founded within the University of Manchester’s innovation ecosystem. Its foundations include collaboration with the National Graphene Institute, the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre, and the Manchester Enterprise Centre. The company was awarded first prize in the 2024 Eli and Britt Harari Graphene Enterprise Award for its innovative work in graphene-based electrode.