Effects of organic medium on rheological properties of silver pastes for crystalline silicon solar cells

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to characterize and understand the effects of polymer binder, thixotropic agent, solvent and organic medium content on the rheological properties of silver pastes for screen printing front electrode films of solar cells. Design/methodology/approach - Dispersions of silver particles (surface modified with oleic acid) in ethyl cellulose (EC) polymer solutions with and without thixotropic agent were prepared, and yield stress values were measured by setting shear stress to characterize the inter-particle interaction strength of pastes. Steady-state flow, three interval thixotropy shear test and oscillatory measurements were conducted to study the effect of EC polymer and thixotropic agent on viscosity, structure rebuilding and viscoelastic properties of electrode pastes. The effect of solvent was studied by investigating the steady viscosity of cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB) polymer solutions and Ag dispersions. Findings - Weak flocculation network of silver particles was produced because of depletion flocculation. Besides the interaction between thixotropic agent micelles, EC polymer also has a significant interaction with thixotropic agent. Merely increasing EC polymer or thixotropic agent content is not the best way to prevent the layer printed from laying down. The effect of solvent on the viscosity of paste is mainly attributed to the difference of hydromechanics radius and configuration of CAB polymer in solvents. With the increase of organic medium content, the properties of electrode pastes were converted from rigidity to flexibility. Originality/value - It is still a challenge to obtain high-quality front electrode films for crystalline silicon solar cells by screen printing, because of the difficulty in reducing shadowing losses while ensuring a low series resistance and high filling factor. The paste rheological properties are the key properties related to the paste's passing ability through the meshes and resistance of paste spreading on the substrate. Organic medium as an important component of the paste is acknowledged to be used to tailor the paste's rheological properties and have a great role in screen printing.