Recovery Act - Scale-up of Green Nanoscience Pathway for Optically Transparent Nanocomposites

This project will scale up manufacturing systems based on green nanoscience pathways for optically transparent nanocomposites, leading to window coatings with higher thermal efficiency and photovoltaic cells with higher energy efficiency. VDL will migrate its nanocomposite technology, based on spin coating, to other coating manufacturing systems capable of coating continuous flexible films for a variety of thermal energy management and energy efficiency applications. This proposal details a nanomanufacturing scaling up nanocomposite production applying green nanoscience principals through the complete process. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: Wave guides, AR coatings and reflective coatings on flexible substrates have a number of important energy efficiency applications, such as films for architectural windows designed to reflect infrared radiation (improving thermal management), AR films for solar cells to reduce surface reflections (about 5-15% of the incident light on a typical solid surface may be reflected), and nanocomposites with high refractive index metal oxides to protect organic solar cells from UV degradation.