Achieving effective performance of silicon solar cell through electrosprayed MgF2 antireflection coating

Abstract

Solar cells technology will be one of the futuristic major resources for global energy demands. One of the major problems in energy harvesting using solar cells was reflection of incident light over solar cell surface. The present research work aims to synthesize the magnesium fluoride through sol-gel process which acts as antireflection layer for achieving better output performance. MgF2 films were deposited over solar cells at varying time periods of 60, 90, 120 and150 minutes through electrospraying technique. MgF2 electrosprayed solar cells were inspected for evaluating its structural, optical, electrical and morphological characteristics. The coated solar cells were analyzed under dark and light conditions. The precursor materials involved in sol-gel synthesis of MgF2 were magnesium chloride hexahydride, polyethylene glycol and hydrofluoric acid. From the I-V results, it is evident that performance of 120 minutes MgF2 coated solar cell exerts maximum performance of 19.38 % (open) and 19.41 % (controlled). MgF2 antireflective electrosprayed films were prominent materials for minimizing reflection and ensuring the maximum photon transmission into the coated surface especially in opto-electronic applications.