Invited Talk: Scalable Nanomanufacturing of Bio-Inspired Optical Thin Films for Solar Photovoltaics

microreactors for the synthesis, assembly, and deposition of nanomaterials. In synthesis, microreactor technology offers large surface-area-to-volume ratios within microchannel structures to accelerate heat and mass transport. This accelerated transport allows for rapid changes in reaction temperatures and concentrations, leading to more uniform heating and mixing in the deposition process. The possibility of synthesizing nanomaterials in the required volumes at the point-of-application eliminates the need to store and transport potentially hazardous materials while providing new opportunities for tailoring novel nanostructures and nanoshaped features. MAND processes control the heat transfer, mass transfer, and reaction kinetics using well-defined microstructures of the active unit reactor cell that can be replicated to produce higher chemical production volumes. This critical feature opens a promising avenue in developing scalable nanomanufacturing. Furthermore, the continuous flow microreactor opens up the opportunity to conveniently assemble unique nanostructures and nanostructured thin films. Results-to-date demonstrates the possibility to control the reacting flux, including small intermediate-reaction molecules, nanoclusters, nanoparticles, and structured assembly of nanomaterials.

In this presentation, recent progress in using continuous microreactors to synthesize bio-inspired nanostructured thin films and the applications of these functional nanostructured thin films for solar photovoltaics will be discussed.