Photon management by scratch-resistant antireflection coating for the efficiency enhancement of silicon solar cell

Antireflection coating (ARC) plays a crucial role in many solar and optical applications. ARC with mechanical robustness was developed to achieve more efficiency for the photovoltaic system cover glasses, by depositing porous Vinyltriethoxysilane/Pluronic F-127-based coating via spin coating technique. The coating shows maximum transparency around 93% in the visible region (400-800 nm). The mechanical robustness of the coating was analyzed using a pencil scratch test as per the ASTM standard D 3363-05 and it showed good stability against a 9H hardness pencil. The porous coating exhibited an enhanced conversion efficiency of 10.56% as compared to the bare glass of efficiency 9.71%; which validate the light-trapping ability of the coating in the visible region. Also, the coating sustains the efficiency of the solar cell even during dust exposure due to its good self-cleaning ability with water contact angle of 112 degrees. It is also noteworthy that the prepared ARC shows UV stability under the UV-B lamp for 72 hours. The ARC developed in this study opens a promising approach to harvest renewable solar energy for photovoltaic systems.

Automated summary

An antireflection coating with mechanical robustness has been developed using the spin coating technique. This coating demonstrates high transparency, scratch resistance, light-trapping ability, and self-cleaning ability, while maintaining stability under UV-B radiation. It offers a promising approach for improving the efficiency and reliability of solar and optical applications.