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Influence of metal assisted chemical etching time period on mesoporous structure in as-cut upgraded metallurgical grade silicon for solar cell application

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Abstract

In this work, upgraded metallurgical grade silicon (UMG-Si) wafer was used to fabricate mesoporous nanostructures, as an effective antireflection layer for solar photovoltaic cells. The length of the vertical Si nanostructure (SiNS) arrays was altered by varying the etching time period during metal assisted chemical etching process, using a silver catalyst. The optical, structural, morphological changes and the antireflection properties of Si nanostructures formed on UMG-Siwafer were analysed. SEM and photoluminescence studies indicate that Si nanocrystals are formed on the surface and along the vertical nanowires. The pore size depends on the Ag nanoparticle size distribution. All the samples demonstrated a luminescence band centred around 2.2 eV. From the optical results, samples etched for 45 min show strong absorption in the visible spectrum. The minimum and maximum surface reflectance in the visible region was observed for 15 min and 60 min etched SiNS. Based on the observed results, 15 min etched Si with a uniform porous structure has minimum reflectance across the entire silicon UV–Vis absorption spectrum, making it worth further investigation as a candidate for use as an antireflection layer in silicon based solar cells.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the support from DST-SERB/F/1829/2012–2013, and DST—PURSE programme MK University, for providing the Raman and SEM facilities. JM thanks Dr. K. Smagul for providing Si wafers. Author VV acknowledges P2V (Grant No. 255082) project funded by the Research council of Norway (NFR).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science, School of Chemistry, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, 625 021, India

    Ragavendran Venkatesan & Jeyanthinath Mayandi

  2. Department of Electronics and Nano engineering, School of Electrical Engineering, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland

    Joshua M. Pearce

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, 49931, USA

    Joshua M. Pearce

  4. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, 49931, USA

    Joshua M. Pearce

  5. Department of Physics, Centre for Materials Science and Nanotechnology, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1048 Blindern, 0316, Oslo, Norway

    Vishnukanthan Venkatachalapathy

  6. Department of Materials Science, National Research Nuclear University “MEPhI”, 31 Kashirskoe sh, Moscow, Russian Federation

    Vishnukanthan Venkatachalapathy

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  1. Ragavendran Venkatesan
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  2. Jeyanthinath Mayandi
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  3. Joshua M. Pearce
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  4. Vishnukanthan Venkatachalapathy
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Correspondence to Jeyanthinath Mayandi.

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Venkatesan, R., Mayandi, J., Pearce, J.M. et al. Influence of metal assisted chemical etching time period on mesoporous structure in as-cut upgraded metallurgical grade silicon for solar cell application. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 30, 8676–8685 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-019-01191-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-019-01191-6

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