The engineering goal of the research was to optimize solar cell power while creating a cost-effective and sustainable quantum dot. The average home uses 1,300 watts per hour. Below are the cost of the various quantum dot solar panels needed for a home:

 

Cost of Commercial Solar Cell: 7 panels, totaling $1652.00

Cost of CuInS2: 4 panels, totaling $1016.28

Cost of TiO2 : 4 panels, totaling $948.60

Cost of CuInS2 + TiO2 : 3 panels, totaling $765.66

Both of the nanocrystal solar cells are much cheaper to produce than the commercial solar panels currently used. Specifically, the CuInS2 + TiO2 solar cell would be the cheapest to produce. The CuInS2 and TiO2 was also the most efficient solar cell in terms of power.







The table below shows the power and efficiency levels of the quantum dot treatments. Most of the quantum dot treatments almost doubled the power value in their panels. The power value showed a decrease across 1, 2, and 4 hours, with a 60% difference in power in the CuInS2 trials. The 1 hour trials had the highest power value in both CuInS2 and CuInS2+TiO2, with the latter having a 138% increase in power. The CuInS2 trails at 4 hours have the lowest power value, at 46%. The addition of TiO2 added a notable increase is the CuInS2 trials, with a 30% increase at 1 hour trials. The efficiency is also listed in Table 2. The CuInS2 with TiO2 at 1 hour had the highest efficiency with 48%. The average solar cell efficiency is 15%. All of the CuInS2 and TiO2 doubled the values of efficiency, and proved that these cadmium-free quantum dots are an effective replacement for commercial solar cells.