A grant for the implementation of the project titled "Transparent, silicon-free, and flexible photovoltaic cells based on graphene quantum dots synthesized from biowaste" was awarded to a team from the Institute of Materials Engineering at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.
Piotr Zawadzki, PhD – scientific leader, Prof. Łukasz Kaczmarek – business leader, and Grzegorz Kawałek, MSc – technology transfer supervisor, will spend the coming months developing the project, taking advantage of the support offered by PRIME, which includes, among others, training, mentoring, market contacts, and the possibility of further funding.
The aim of the project is to develop a prototype of a transparent and flexible photovoltaic cell, FlexQuantumPV, using graphene quantum dots (GQD) obtained from biowaste. The developed technology stands out for several significant advantages: a) it is environmentally friendly, b) it does not generate toxic waste, c) it allows for the production of large amounts of material with minimal raw material consumption, d) it can be easily scaled up from laboratory to larger-scale production, e) it is characterized by low manufacturing costs.
A total of 67 research-business teams applied for the competition, held at the beginning of 2025. Its goal is to support scientists in commercializing research results.
The substantive partner of the program is the British company Oxentia, and the project is financed by the European Funds for a Modern Economy.