Silica Microspheres for Economical Advanced Solar Applications

Abstract

Solar cells made of silicon nanowires (Si-NWs) have several potential benefits over conventional bulk Si ones or thin-film devices related primarily to light absorption and cost reduction. Controlling the position of Si-NWs without lithography using silica microspheres is indeed an economical approach. Moreover, replacing the glass sheets with polycarbonates is an added advantage. This study employed the Nanoscale Chemical Templating (NCT) technique in growing Si-NWs seeded with Al. The growth was undertaken at the Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) reactor via the original growth process of vapor–liquid–solid (VLS). The bottom-up grown nanowires were doped with aluminum (Al) throughout the growth process, and then the p–n junctions were formed with descent efficiency. Further work is required to optimize the growth of Si-NWs between the spun microspheres based on the growth parameters including etching time, which should lead to more efficient PV cells.

Keywords

• chemical vapor deposition (CVD)
• silicon (Si)
• nanowires (NWs)
• silica microspheres
• nanoscale chemical templating (NCT)
• photovoltaic (PV) cells