Packaging glass with a hierarchically nanostructured surface: A universal method to achieve self-cleaning omnidirectional solar cells

Chin An Lin, Meng Lin Tsai, Wan Rou Wei, Kun Yu Lai, Hau He

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

22 Scopus citations

Abstract

Fused-silica packaging glass fabricated with a hierarchical structure by integrating small (ultrathin nanorods) and large (honeycomb nanowalls) structures was demonstrated with exceptional light-harvesting solar performance, which is attributed to the subwavelength feature of the nanorods and an efficient scattering ability of the honeycomb nanowalls. Si solar cells covered with the hierarchically structured packaging glass exhibit enhanced conversion efficiency by 5.2% at normal incidence, and the enhancement went up to 46% at the incident angle of 60°. The hierarchical structured packaging glass shows excellent self-cleaning characteristics: 98.8% of the efficiency is maintained after 6 weeks of outdoor exposure, indicating that the nanostructured surface effectively repels polluting dust/particles. The presented self-cleaning omnidirectional light-harvesting design using the hierarchical structured packaging glass is a potential universal scheme for practical solar applications.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)549-555
Number of pages7
JournalACS Nano
Volume10
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 26 Jan 2016

Keywords

  • Antireflective coatings
  • Hierarchical
  • Nanorods
  • Nanowalls
  • Self-cleaning
  • Solar cells

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