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Aluminum Nanoparticles Passivation of Multi-Crystalline Silicon Nanostructure for Solar Cells Applications

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Abstract

In this paper, we demonstrated that aluminum films deposited on the front surface of multi-crystalline silicon (mc-Si) provide excellent surface passivation and high electronic quality of such materials. A thickness of about 8 μm of aluminum films was deposited by a screen-printed on the front surface of the mc-Si annealed for 20 min at 500 °C. The immersion of multi-crystalline silicon in HF/H2O2/HNO3 after the film deposition is the key factor in achieving the high electronic quality front surface of mc-Si nanostructures (mc-Si-NS). As a result, the total reflectivity drops to about 2% and a low surface recombination velocity of about 1.5 cm s−1 was obtained. These results indicate that multi-crystalline silicon surface passivation using the aluminum layer is a valuable process to improve the efficiency of the mc-Si-NS based solar cells.

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Acknowledgements

The authors extend their appreciation to the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Saud University for funding this work through research group No (RG-1439-006).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, King Saud University, P.O. Box 800, Riyadh, 11421, Saudi Arabia

    A. B. Jemai, S. Mokraoui & A. Al-Ghyamah

  2. LaNSER, Research and Technology Centre of Energy (CRTEn), Borj Cedria Technopark, BP.95, 2050, Hammam-Lif, Tunisia

    A. Mannai, L. Khezami & M. Ben Rabha

  3. Department of Chemistry, College of Sciences, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU), P.O. Box 5701, Riyadh, 11432, Saudi Arabia

    L. Khezami & Faisal K. Algethami

  4. LPV, Research and Technology Centre of Energy (CRTEn), Borj Cedria Technopark, BP.95, 2050, Hammam-Lif, Tunisia

    M. Ben Rabha

  5. Riyadh College of Technology, Technical and Vocational Training Corporation, P.O. Box 42826, Riyadh, 11551, Saudi Arabia

    M. Ben Rabha

Authors
  1. A. B. Jemai
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  2. A. Mannai
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  3. L. Khezami
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  4. S. Mokraoui
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  5. Faisal K. Algethami
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  6. A. Al-Ghyamah
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  7. M. Ben Rabha
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Correspondence to A. B. Jemai or M. Ben Rabha.

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Jemai, A.B., Mannai, A., Khezami, L. et al. Aluminum Nanoparticles Passivation of Multi-Crystalline Silicon Nanostructure for Solar Cells Applications. Silicon 12, 2755–2760 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-019-00368-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-019-00368-2

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