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Light Harvesting Using Biomimetic Micro-textured Transparent Films for Photovoltaic Applications

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Abstract

Increasing light absorption through surface textured transparent films is gaining importance in the development of high-efficiency solar cells. However, most of the textured films are produced by replication with imprinting stamps that are fabricated by resource-intensive and expensive lithography-based techniques. In this work, we employed lotus leaves as low-cost imprinting stamps to fabricate large-area transparent polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) films decorated with micron-scale features. Subsequently, we investigate the optical and light-harvesting properties of those micro-textured PDMS films to improve the efficiency of crystalline silicon solar cells. The combined influence of the anti-reflective SiNx dielectric layer and the laminated PDMS films on solar cells was also examined. The graded refractive index imparted at the air-silicon interface by the textured PDMS films containing micro-posts reduced the reflectance. In those solar cells without the SiNx coating, the lamination of textured PDMS significantly reduced the solar-weighted reflectance by more than 40%, increased short-circuit current density by 6.5% and improved the power conversion efficiency by 10%. However, the textured PDMS films exhibited marginal improvement of power conversion efficiency (1.3%) on SiNx coated crystalline solar cells, although the reduction in solar-weighted reflectance by 30%. We believe that the biomimetic micro-textured PDMS films proposed in this paper prove to be cost-effective candidates for enhancing the light-absorption capacity of highly efficient crystalline silicon solar cells.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the National centre for Photovoltaic Research and Education (NCPRE), IIT Bombay for help in fabrication of solar cells. We thank Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facility (SAIF), IIT Bombay, India for providing the instrument support.

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  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, 400076, India

    Sohail Ahmad, Himani Sharma, Amit Agrawal & Suhas S. Joshi

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  1. Sohail Ahmad
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  2. Himani Sharma
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  3. Amit Agrawal
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  4. Suhas S. Joshi
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Correspondence to Amit Agrawal.

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Ahmad, S., Sharma, H., Agrawal, A. et al. Light Harvesting Using Biomimetic Micro-textured Transparent Films for Photovoltaic Applications. Trans Indian Natl. Acad. Eng. 6, 775–785 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41403-021-00244-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41403-021-00244-9

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