Abstract
Functional nanoarrays of metallic-polymer nanocomposites have combined the advantageous elements of light trapping efficiency via enhanced light scattering mechanisms and accentuated localized surface plasmon resonance (LPSR) effect. The coating of such nanocomposites on the glass surface of a photovoltaic cell has enhanced its light harvesting efficiency attributed to the anti-reflective property of the polymer nanoarrays in addition to the plasmonic effect of the metallic nanoparticles. In this study, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) with different size ranges were fabricated through a chemical reduction method with dodecylamine as the capping agent. Besides that, poly(methyl methacrylate-co-acrylic acid) nanospheres incorporated with various amount of trimethoxyvinylsilane [P(MMA-co-AA-co-TMVS)] were synthesized via emulsion polymerization. Subsequently, polyacrylic nanospheres containing 7 wt% of TMVS and encapsulated with different amount of AgNPs of two different size ranges, i.e., 3–7 nm and 10–30 nm, were also synthesized. Two chemical bath deposition methods based on the self-assembly coating technique, namely immersion coating and dip coating technique, were employed to deposit the polymeric nanospheres as nanoarrays on glass substrates. The immersion method was found to give a remarkable power conversion efficiency (PCE) improvement of 42%, when the glass surface of a solar module was coated with P(MMA-co-AA-co-TMVS) nanospheres containing 7 wt% of TMVS. The highest relative PCE enhancement of 73.6% was achieved when an array of P(MMA-co-AA-co-TMVS) nanospheres containing 7 wt% of TMVS and encapsulated with 12.5 ppm of AgNPs (10–30 nm) was coated on the glass surface of photovoltaic cells.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Askar K, Phillips BM, Fang Y, Choi B, Gozubenli N, Jiang P, Jiang B (2013) Self-assembled self-cleaning broadband anti-reflection coatings. Colloids Surf A Physicochem Eng Asp 439:84–100
Bönnemann H, Richards RM (2001) Nanoscopic metal particles−synthetic methods and potential applications. Eur J Inorg Chem 10:2455–2480
Chou CH, Chen FC (2014) Plasmonic nanostructures for light trapping in organic photovoltaic devices. Nanoscale 6(15):8444–8458
Dai H, Li M, Li Y, Yu H, Bai F, Ren X (2021) Effective light trapping enhancement by plasmonic Ag nanoparticles on silicon pyramid surface. Opt Express 22(4):502–509
Dandekar DP (1998) Index of refraction and mechanical behavior of soda lime glass under shock and release wave propagations. J Appl Phys 84:6614–6622
Dekacs D, Lim SH, Matheu P, Mar W, Yu ET (2006) Improved performance of amorphous silicon solar cell via scattering from surface plasmon polaritons in bearably metallic nanoparticles. Appl Phys Lett 89(9):093103
Deng X, Mammen L, Zhao Y, Lellig P, Müllen K, Li C, Butt H-J, Vollmer D (2011) Transparent, thermally stable and mechanically robust superhydrophobic surfaces made from porous silica capsules. Adv Mater 23:2962–2965
Erjaee H, Rajaian H, Nazifi S (2017) Synthesis and characterization of novel silver nanoparticles using Chamaemelum nobile extract for antibacterial application. Adv Nat Sci Nanosci Nanotechnol 8(2):025004
Esmaeilzad NS, Demir AK, Hajivandi J, Ciftpinar H, Turan R, Kurt H, Bek A (2020) Nanosphere concentrated photovoltaics with shape control. Adv Opt Mater 9(3):2000943
Farrell Z, Shelton C, Dunn C, Green D (2013) Straightforward, one-step synthesis of alkanethiol-capped silver nanoparticles from an aggregative model of growth. Langmuir 29(30):9291–9300
Guilatt O, Apter B, Efron U (2009) Study of LSPR-enhanced absorption for solar cell applications: Preliminary results. Proc SPIE Nanoscale Photonic Cell Technol Photovolt II 7411:92–100
Haugan E, Granlund H, Gjessing J, Marstein ES (2011) Colloidal crystals as templates for light harvesting structures in solar cells. Energy Procedia 10:292–296
Islam K, Alnuaimi A, Batta E, Okyay AK, Nayfeh A (2014) Effect of gold nanoparticles size on light scattering for thin film amorphous-silicon solar cells. Sol Energy 103:263–268
Jeng M, Chen Z, Xiao Y, Chang L, Ao J, Sun Y, Popko E, Jacak W, Chow L (2015) Improving efficiency of multicrystalline silicon and CIGS solar cells by incorporating metal nanoparticles. Materials 8(10):6761–6771
Jiao T, Wei D, Song X, Sun T, Yang J, Yu L, Feng Y, Sun W, Wei W, Shi H, Hu C, Du C (2016) High-efficiency, stable and non-chemical-doped graphene-Si solar cells through interface engineering and PMMA antireflection. RSC Adv 6:10175–10179
Lee CL, Goh WS, Chee SY, Yik LK (2017) Enhancement of light harvesting efficiency of silicon solar cell utilizing arrays poly(methyl methacrylate-co-acrylic acid) nano-spheres and nano-spheres with embedded silver nano-particles. Photonics Nanostruct Fundam Appl 23:36–44
Lee CL, Goh WS, Chee SY, Yik LK (2018) Augmentation of power conversion efficiency of amorphous silicon solar cell employing poly(methyl methacrylate-co-acrylic acid) nanospheres encapsulated with gold nanoparticles. J Mater Sci 53:5183–5193
Lee MJR, Chee SY, Tay BY, Lee CL, Lim FC, Sepeai S (2021) Affixing poly(methyl methacrylate-co-acrylic acid) nanospheres with trimethoxyvinylsilane on silicon solar module to enhance its power conversion efficiency. J Mater Sci 56(21):1–19
Lin GJ, Wang HP, Lien DH, Fu PH, Chang HC, Ho H, Lin CA, Lai KY, He JH (2014) A broadband and omnidirectional light-harvesting scheme employing nanospheres on Si solar cells. Nano Energy 6:36–43
Liu Q, Ding J, Chambers DE, Debnath S, Wunder SL, Baran GR (2001) Filler-coupling agent-matrix interactions in silica/polymethylmethacrylate composites. J Biomed Mater Res 57(3):384–393
Miller A, Berg J (2003) Effect of silane coupling agent adsorbate structure on adhesion performance with a polymeric matrix. Compos Part A Appl Sci Manuf 34:327–332
Ooij WJV, Stacy DZM, Seth A, Mugada T, Gandhi J, Puomi P (2005) Corrosion protection properties of organofunctional silanes-an overview. Tsinghua Sci Technol 10(6):639–664
Padervand M, Heidarpour H, Goshadehzehn M, Hajiahmadi S (2021) Photocatalytic degradation of 3-methyl-4-nitrophenol over Ag/AgCl-decorated/[MOYI]-coated/ZnO nanostructures: Material characterization, photocatalytic performance, and in-vivo toxicity assessment of the photoproducts. Environ Technol Innov 21:101212
Padervand M, Nasiri F, Hajiahmadi S, Bargahi A, Esmaeili S, Amini M, Nami RK, Shahsavari Z, Karima S (2022a) Ag@Ag2MoO4 decorated polyoxomolybdate/C3N4 nanostructures as highly efficient photocatalysts for the wastewater treatment and cancer cells killing under visible light. Inorg Chem Commun 425:113700
Padervand M, Ghasemi S, Hajiahmadi S, Rhimi B, Nejad ZG, Karima S, Shahsavari Z, Wang C (2022b) Multifunctional Ag/AgCl/ZnTiO3 structures as highly efficient photocatalysts for the removal of nitrophenols, CO2 photoreduction, biomedical waste treatment, and bacteria inactivation. Appl Catal A Gen 643:118794
Restrepo CV, Villa CC (2021) Synthesis of silver nanoparticles, influence of capping agents, and dependence on size and shape: a review. Environ Nanotechnol Monit Manag 15:100428
Scarabelli L, Schumacher M, Aberasturi DJ, Merkl JP, Henriksen-Lacey M, Oliveira TM, Janschel M, SchmidtkeC BS, Waller H, Liz-Marzán LM (2019) Encapsulation of noble metal nanoparticles through seeeded emulsion polymerization as highly stable plasmonic systems. Adv Funct Mater 29(14):1809071
Shanmugam N, Pugazhendhi R, Elavarasan RM, Kasiviswanathan P, Das N (2020) Anti-reflective coating materials: a holistic review from PV perspective. Energies 13:2631
Shanti R, Hadi AN, Salim YS, Chee SY, Ramesh S, Ramesh K (2017) Degradation of ultra-high molecular weight poly(methyl methacrylate-co-butyl acrylate-co-acrylic acid) under ultra violet irradiation. RSC Adv 7:112–120
Tay BY, Chee SY, Lee CL, Sepeai S, Aminuzzaman M (2020) Improvement of light-harvesting efficiency of amorphous silicon solar cell coated with silver nanoparticles anchored via (3-mercaptopropyl)trimethoxysilane. Appl Nanosci 10(9):3553–3567
Temple TL, Mahanama GDK, Reehal HS, Bagnall DM (2009) Influence of localized surface plasmon excitation in silver nanoparticles on the performance of silicon solar cells. Sol Energy Mater Sol Cells 93(11):1978–1985
Yamak HB (2013) Emulsion polymerization: effects of polymerization variables on the properties of vinyl acetate based emulsion polymers. J Polym Sci 2:35–72
Zamkoye II, Lucus B, Vedraine S (2023) Synergistic effects of localized surface plasmon resonance, surface plasmon polariton, and waveguide plasmonic resonance on the same material: a promising hypothesis to enhance organic solar cell efficiency. Nanomaterials 13(15):2209
Acknowledgements
The authors express their gratitude to Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman for the instrumentation support and research funding [UTARRF Grant number: IPSR/RMC/UTARRF/2019-C1/C01] and the National University of Malaysia (UKM) for the instrumentation support in the Advanced Silicon Solar Cells Laboratory.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Tay, BY., Chee, SY., Lee, CL. et al. Remarkable enhancement of power conversion efficiency of silicon photovoltaic cell overlaying with novel metallic-polymer nanocomposites utilising immersion technique. Chem. Pap. 78, 3651–3665 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11696-024-03337-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11696-024-03337-1