High-Performance Black Multicrystalline Silicon Solar Cells by a Highly Simplified Metal-Catalyzed Chemical Etching Method

A wet-chemical surface texturing technique, including a two-step metal-catalyzed chemical etching (MCCE) and an extra alkaline treatment, has been proven as an efficient way to fabricate high-efficiency black multicrystalline (mc) silicon solar cells, whereas it is limited by the production capacity and the cost cutting due to the complicated process. Here, we demonstrated that with careful control of the composition in etching solution, low-aspect-ratio bowl-like nanostructures with atomically smooth surfaces could be directly achieved by improved one-step MCCE and with no posttreatment, like alkali solution. The doublet surface texture of implementing this nanobowl structure upon the industrialized acidic-textured surface showed concurrent improvement in optical and electrical properties for realizing 18.23% efficiency mc-Si solar cells (156 mm × 156 mm), which is sufficiently higher than 17.7% of the solely acidic-textured cells in the same batch. The one-step MCCE method demonstrated in this study may provide a cost-effective way to manufacture high-performance mc-Si solar cells for the present photovoltaic industry. © 2016 IEEE.