Dr. Éanna McCarthy is a post-doctoral research fellow at DCU. He was awarded a bachelor’s degree in Applied Physics from Dublin City University in 2008. During his PhD, he worked on the growth of zinc oxide nanowires by pulsed laser deposition, vapour phase transport, and wet chemical methods, for the application of field emission. He joined the Advanced Processing Technology group as a post-doctoral researcher, and worked primarily on laser processing of materials (laser melting-hardening, laser nitriding, laser texturing, laser welding, and laser drilling), and on testing of materials for additive manufacturing and additively manufactured parts.
Research Interests (Lay Summary)
Within I-Form, Dr. Éanna McCarthy works on the production of metal nanoparticles, and the deposition of these nanoparticles to create seed layers. In solar cells, screen-printed silver contacts are typically used. This is a large factor in the expense of solar cells, and the limited available of silver presents a barrier to increased uptake of solar energy, known as the “Silver limit”. Copper has superior properties, costs, and availability to silver. A scalable, commercially viable approach for depositing copper electrodes is desired. Inkjet printing of nanoparticle seed layers is one avenue that may achieve this. Dr. McCarthy has also worked in the COVID-19 Rapid Response Digital Manufacturing & Innovation Hub, towards developing technologies and response towards the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Technical Summary
Copper electrodes can be grown on metal nanoparticle seed layers (of copper or other metals). The goals of the project are the production of metal nanoparticle inks using laser ablation in liquid, and the inkjet printing of seed layers using said nanoparticle inks. Through the project both processes will be optimised with the aim of achieving uniform, conductive layers with good adhesion. Optimised seed layers will be sent to the Quantum Energy and Sustainable Solar Technologies (QESST) centre at Arizona State University for copper electrodes to be grown on the seed layers. If successful, this approach could improve the cost-effectiveness and sustainability of solar energy.