Large-scale black multi-crystalline silicon solar cell with conversion efficiency over 18 %

In this paper, large area multi-crystalline silicon (mc-Si) solar cells of 156 mm × 156 mm were fabricated by the combination of Ag-assisted etching and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) treatment. Scanning electron microscope, UV–Vis–NIR spectrophotometer, external quantum efficiency measurement system, and current–voltage test were used to characterize the etched black silicon wafers and the fabricated solar cells. It was found that, though the black mc-Si without NaOH treatment showed a lowest reflectance of 2.03 % in the wavelength of 400–900 nm, the maximum conversion efficiency came from the mc-Si solar cells produced by combination of Ag-assisted etching and NaOH treatment. Though the solar cell with additional NaOH treatment for 30 s presented a reflectance of 5.45 %, it presented the highest conversion efficiency of 18.03 %, which is 0.64 % higher than the traditional mc-Si solar cell (17.39 %) and much higher than that of the black mc-Si solar cell without NaOH treatment (16.24 %).