Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2018-2019).

Climate change due to excessive CO2 emissions represents an important global issue. Carbon Upcyclingx000D
Technologies Inc. was founded with a vision of changing the narrative on CO2 and other greenhouse gasx000D
emissions from a problem to a solution. To this end, it has been dedicated to developing innovative newx000D
technologies to turn waste gases to high-value products, which are then explored for various applications. Inx000D
particular, it has recently developed a new process to synthesize graphene quantum dots from CO2, for which itx000D
has the urgent need to evaluate, explore and improve their performance in solar cells, because graphenex000D
quantum dots are believed to be able to enhance photon absorption of solar cells via the so-calledx000D
up-conversion and/or down-conversion effects. One of the problems it encounters is how to tailor thesex000D
graphene quantum dots in an appropriate way and conduct quantum dot-involved solar cell device fabricationx000D
efficiently, so as to gain the highest possible performance enhancement. Capitalizing on the strong expertise ofx000D
Ma's group on solar cells and nanomaterials, the main goals of this project are to explore the use ofx000D
CO2-generated graphene quantum dots, after deliberate surface modification, in organic solar cells to achieve ax000D
high enhancement of power conversion efficiency by optimizing materials and device fabrication. Meanwhile,x000D
we intend to unravel the relationship between graphene quantum dot structure, surface chemistry and devicex000D
performance, which can provide guides for further development of graphene quantum dot applications in solarx000D
cells and other optoelectronics.