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Effect of composition of front-electrode-paste glass on electrical performance of multicrystalline silicon solar cells

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Abstract

In this study, the effects of Si/Pb ratio of Pb–Te–Si–O glasses on the electrical performance of multicrystalline Si solar cells were investigated. We first studied the relationship between the properties of glass frit (such as transition temperature (Tg), crystallization tendency, and aggressiveness) and the Si/Pb ratios. Then, the influence of glass frit Tg on the structure of the contact interface, quality of ohmic contacts, and solar cell electrical performance was investigated. The results showed that the cell based on glass frit produced at moderately low Tg, had smaller series resistance and higher photoelectric conversion efficiency than those based on lower Tg and higher Tg glass frits. The optimal glass frit Tg was 289.6 °C; glass frits can form dense and thick films, which can reduce the bulk resistance of the grid line. At the same time, glass frits can reduce the Ag crystallite size to prevent high junction leakage and shunting of shallow emitters, and probably increase the concentration of Ag crystallites and Ag colloids to help tunnel the thinner glass layer. This led to formation of good ohmic contacts and conductive chains. All these features contributed to reach the best values of photoelectric conversion efficiency (18.628%) and series resistance (0.0019 Ω).

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the financial supports of the National Hi-Tech Research and Development Program (863) Key Project of China (Nos. 2012AA050301-SQ2011GX01D01292), Key Project of Industrial Science and Technology of Shaanxi Province (Nos. 2016GY-090 and 2016GY-196), and Xi’an Industrial Technology Innovation Project-technology transfer promoting program (Nos. CXY1421,CX1242, and CXY1511-9).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Key Laboratory of Photoelectric Technology and Functional Materials (Culture Base), National Photoelectric Technology and Functional Materials and Application of International Science and Technology Cooperation Base, Institute of Photonics and Photon-Technology, Northwest University, Xi’an, 710069, People’s Republic of China

    Hanying Wang, Shenghua Ma, Xuemei Cheng & Jintao Bai

  2. College of Energy Engineering, Yulin University, Yulin, 719000, People’s Republic of China

    Hanying Wang

  3. Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule Chemistry (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University, Xi’an, 710069, People’s Republic of China

    Qian Ma & Hui Wang

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  1. Hanying Wang
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  2. Shenghua Ma
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  3. Qian Ma
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  4. Xuemei Cheng
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  5. Hui Wang
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Correspondence to Hui Wang or Jintao Bai.

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Wang, H., Ma, S., Ma, Q. et al. Effect of composition of front-electrode-paste glass on electrical performance of multicrystalline silicon solar cells. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 28, 6936–6949 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-017-6394-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-017-6394-8

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