Thomas William Colburn

All Publications

• Rapid scalable plasma processing of thin-film Li-La-Zr-O solid-state electrolytes MATTER Crane, G., Colburn, T. W., Holmes, S. E., Just, J., Cui, Y., Dauskardt, R. H. 2025; 8 (11)

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.matt.2025.102468

  View details for Web of Science ID 001616130500020

• Open-Air Combustion Synthesis with Rapid Plasma Processing of Large-Area Transparent Conducting Oxides. Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) Colburn, T. W., Flick, A. C., Just, J., Miller, R. D., Dauskardt, R. H. 2025: e2503252

  Abstract

  A vacuum-free, high-throughput synthesis of indium tin oxide (ITO) via Combustion Oxidation with Rapid Plasma Processing (CORP) utilizes a solution-based exothermic combustion reaction to generate the oxide with tunable control of either amorphous or crystalline phases. A subsequent open-air, forming gas plasma treatment is used to introduce oxygen vacancies and promote crystallization. The evolution of the oxide structure is elucidated by extended X-ray absorption spectroscopy fine structure analysis. Using CORP, fabrication of 300 cm2 of ITO possessing a champion sheet resistance of 38 Ω sq.-1, visible transmission of 89%, conductivity stability for over 250 days, roughness < 2nm, and Haacke figure of merit (%T550nm 10/Rs) of 0.012 Ω-1 is achieved. Cost modeling of CORP demonstrates up to a 67% reduction in price for TCOs using fully continuous, in-line unit operations compared with vacuum sputtering. The work shows a path toward a low-cost, vacuum-free manufacturing method for TCOs at commercial scales.

  View details for DOI 10.1002/smll.202503252

  View details for PubMedID 40522267

• Porogen-Integrated Rapid Oxidation Enables Structured Mesoporous Metal Oxide Films. Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) Collinson, D. W., Colburn, T. W., Miller, R. D., Dauskardt, R. H. 2025: e2504719

  Abstract

  Structured metal oxide films have promise in optoelectronics, sensing, energy storage, and catalysis but their uptake is predominately limited due to their long and high-temperature syntheses. Here, a self-assembling polymer is used which can act as a chelating fuel source in a solution combustion reaction to generate highly structured mesoporous aluminum oxide films at <250 °C in a matter of minutes through a process termed porogen-integrated rapid oxidation (PiRO). The resulting films with thicknesses up to 500 nm show an open-cell, face-centered cubic structure of spheroidal pores. Further, an additional ligand can be included to control the self-assembly step to yield both through-film ordering or tunable disordering for increased pore volume as confirmed by both grazing incidence small angle X-ray scattering and ellipsometry. Finally, roll-to-roll manufacturing with PiRO is demonstrated on flexible polymeric substrates. The method offers a tunable, scalable, low-temperature, and lower-cost method to generate large-area structured mesoporous metal oxide films.

  View details for DOI 10.1002/adma.202504719

  View details for PubMedID 40511696

• Open-air spray deposition of PCBM/BCP electron transport layer for inverted perovskite solar cells MATTER Chen, J. P., Colburn, T. W., Risner-Jamtgaard, J., Vailionis, A., Barnum, A., Golding, M., Carbone, A., Flick, A. C., Dauskardt, R. H. 2025; 8 (3)

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.matt.2025.101990

  View details for Web of Science ID 001441189600001

• Mechanical Design Guidelines to Inhibit Fracture in Perovskite Solar Cells SOLAR RRL Colburn, T., Liu, K., Carbone, A., Elsafty, O., Dauskardt, R. 2024

  View details for DOI 10.1002/solr.202400321

  View details for Web of Science ID 001279823700001

• An open-source environmental chamber for materials-stability testing using an optical proxy DIGITAL DISCOVERY Keesey, R., Tiihonen, A., Siemenn, A. E., Colburn, T. W., Sun, S., Hartono, N., Serdy, J., Zeile, M., He, K., Gurtner, C. A., Flick, A. C., Batali, C., Encinas, A., Naik, R. R., Liu, Z., Oviedo, F., Peters, I., Thapa, J., Parker Tian, S., Dauskardt, R. H., Norquist, A. J., Buonassisi, T. 2023; 2 (2): 422-440

  View details for DOI 10.1039/d2dd00089j

  View details for Web of Science ID 001101481100001

• Embedding Azobenzene-Functionalized Carbon Nanotubes into a Polymer Matrix for Stretchable, Composite Solar Thermal Devices JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY C Colburn, T. W., Delmastro, A. C., Figueroa, M., Lopez, F., Cooper, C. B. 2022

  View details for DOI 10.1021/acs.jpcc.2c03865

  View details for Web of Science ID 000853650400001

• Machine learning with knowledge constraints for process optimization of open-air perovskite solar cell manufacturing JOULE Liu, Z., Rolston, N., Flick, A. C., Colburn, T. W., Ren, Z., Dauskardt, R. H., Buonassisi, T. 2022; 6 (4): 834-849

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.joule.2022.03.003

  View details for Web of Science ID 000798575600014

• Perspectives of Open-Air Processing to Enable Perovskite Solar Cell Manufacturing FRONTIERS IN ENERGY RESEARCH Rolston, N., Sleugh, A., Chen, J. P., Zhao, O., Colburn, T. W., Flick, A. C., Dauskardt, R. H. 2021; 9

  View details for DOI 10.3389/fenrg.2021.684082

  View details for Web of Science ID 000660048100001