Huo Chenliang, Fu Haoxin, Peng Kui-Qing
College of Education for the Future, Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai, Department of Physics and Beijing Key Laboratory of Energy Conversion and Storage Materials, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
Tongwei Solar Company, Chengdu, China.
Heliyon. 2023 Dec 19;10(1):e23871. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e23871. eCollection 2024 Jan 15.
Low-cost aqueous alkaline etching has been widely adopted for monocrystalline silicon surface texturing in current industrial silicon solar cells. However, conventional alkaline etching can only prepare upright pyramid structures on mono-crystalline silicon surfaces. This study demonstrates for the first time the use of ethylene glycol butyl ether (EGBE) to regulate aqueous anisotropic alkaline etching and prepare inverted pyramid structures on monocrystalline silicon surfaces. Acidic metal-catalyzed etching solutions are not the best choice for monocrystalline silicon due to their inherent disadvantages, such as noble metal pollution and relatively high costs. The one-step method to produce the inverted pyramid structures by using alkaline etch with EGBE additive is simple and inexpensive, does not generate noble metal pollution, and especially compatible with current industrial silicon solar cell production lines. With the use of a sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution containing a low-cost additive, inverted pyramid structures can be prepared on mono-crystalline silicon surface in a short time. This method is suitable for various types of silicon wafers and has great potential for industrial solar cell applications.
低成本的碱性水溶液刻蚀已在当前工业硅太阳能电池的单晶硅表面纹理化中得到广泛应用。然而，传统的碱性刻蚀只能在单晶硅表面制备直立金字塔结构。本研究首次展示了使用乙二醇丁醚（EGBE）来调控碱性水溶液各向异性刻蚀，并在单晶硅表面制备倒金字塔结构。酸性金属催化刻蚀溶液由于其固有的缺点，如贵金属污染和成本相对较高，并非单晶硅的最佳选择。通过使用添加EGBE的碱性刻蚀一步法制备倒金字塔结构简单且成本低廉，不会产生贵金属污染，尤其与当前工业硅太阳能电池生产线兼容。使用含有低成本添加剂的氢氧化钠（NaOH）溶液，可在短时间内在单晶硅表面制备倒金字塔结构。该方法适用于各种类型的硅片，在工业太阳能电池应用中具有巨大潜力。
