COATING FOR SOLAR PANEL

ABSTRACT
Paint/coatings are become increasingly important area of research for solar cells since it can
be used for energy generation or improvement in efficiency and durability of existing
photovoltaic

technologies.

The

coatings

with

antireflective,

super

hydrophobic,

transparency, weather scratch resistance etc. function or their combination are being used /
attempted for this purpose. The amorphous Si or other thin film Si, cadmium telluride,
copper indium gallium selenide etc and 3rd generation technologies such as nano-crystalline
dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC)

polymer/organic photovoltaic (OPV), hybrid solar cell

technologies etc. are very important for coating technologist. With the availability of wide
variety of nano & polymeric architecture there exists a good possibility of combining them to
get solar coatings for power generation. This can be made possible through shifting research
focus on application of inexpensive materials and fabrication methods, disruptive
combination materials, self assembly fabrication, morphology & size controls of materials,
quantum dots, fullerene or their low cost alternatives etc. The challenge is to overcome the
defect density and low mobility developing or combining materials to absorb across visible
spectrum and get controlled nanostructure architecture.

INTRODUCTION:
With the impending scarcity of many valuable resources, people are now starting to consider
other sources of energy. While there have been many studies on the viability of wind or
water energy, when it comes to an easy transportable energy solution, solar energy is now
the major contender since it is the easiest to collect energy from. All that will be ever
needed is a trusty solar panel. Photovoltaic (PV) technology has become an integral part of
the worldwide energy mix. Every hour enough energy from the sun reaches Earth to meet
the worlds energy usage for an entire year. Creating solar power by converting sunlight into
electricity would lower emissions from electricity generation and decrease long-term energy
costs. As solar power becomes more cost-effective, it has the potential to make up a larger
share of growing worlds energy needs.
A solar cell (also called a photovoltaic cell and a form of photoelectric cell) is an electrical
device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect.

Figure : 1

Basic steps of energy generation in a solar panel:1.

Photons in sunlight hit the solar panel and are absorbed by semiconducting
materials, such as silicon.

2.

Electrons (negatively charged) are knocked loose from their atoms, allowing them to
flow through the material to produce electricity. Due to the special composition of solar cells,
the electrons are only allowed to move in a single direction.

3.

An array of solar cells converts solar energy into a usable amount of direct
current (DC) electricity.

BUILDING BLOCK OF A SOLAR PANEL:

During the last decade the photovoltaic (PV) market has experienced a steady growth
of 15-25% with the growth rate even exceeding 40% in 2000. In the near future a further
increase in growth rate is expected In 2001, about 91% of the PV market share were held by
crystalline silicon, the major part being provided by polycrystalline (48%) and single-crystal
(35%) material. Thin-film technologies like amorphous silicon (a-Si:H), CIS (CuInGaSe2) and
CdTe make up for only a small fraction of the worlds module market.

Figure 2: Market shares of photovoltaic materials.

SOLAR CELL EFFICIENCY :

Solar cell efficiency is the ratio of the electrical output of a solar cell to the incident
energy in the form of sunlight. The energy conversion efficiency () of a solar cell is the
percentage of the solar energy to which the cell is exposed that is converted into electrical
energy.

FACTORS INFLUENCING SOLAR CELL EFFICIENCY:

Thermodynamic efficiency limit:
Solar cells operate as quantum energy conversion devices, and are therefore subject to the
"thermodynamic efficiency limit". Photons with energy below the band gap of the absorber
material cannot generate a hole-electron pair, and so their energy is not converted to useful
output and only generates heat if absorbed. For photons with energy above the band gap
energy, only a fraction of the energy above the band gap can be converted to useful output.
When a photon of greater energy is absorbed, the excess energy above the band gap is
converted to kinetic energy of the carrier combination. The excess kinetic energy is
converted to heat through phonon interactions as the kinetic energy of the carriers slows to
equilibrium velocity.

Quantum efficiency:
Quantum efficiency refers to the percentage of photons that are converted to electric
current (i.e., collected carriers) when the cell is operated under short circuit conditions. The
"external" quantum efficiency of a silicon solar cell includes the effect of optical losses such
as transmission and reflection. However, it is often useful to look at the quantum efficiency
of the light left after the reflected and transmitted light has been lost. "Internal" quantum
efficiency refers to the efficiency with which photons that are not reflected or transmitted
out of the cell can generate collectable carriers.

Maximum power point:

A solar cell may operate over a wide range of voltages (V) and currents (I). By increasing the
resistive load on an irradiated cell continuously from zero (a short circuit) to a very high
value (an open circuit) one can determine the maximum power point, the point that
maximizes VI; that is, the load for which the cell can deliver maximum electrical power at
that level of irradiation. (The output power is zero in both the short circuit and open circuit
extremes). The maximum power point of a photovoltaic varies with incident illumination. For
example, accumulation of dust on photovoltaic panels reduces the maximum power point.

Fill factor:
Another defining term in the overall behavior of a solar cell is the fill factor (FF). This is the
available power at the maximum power point (Pm) divided by the open circuit voltage (VOC)
and the short circuit current (ISC):

The fill factor is directly affected by the values of the cell's series and shunt resistances.
Increasing the shunt resistance (Rsh) and decreasing the series resistance (R s) lead to a
higher fill factor, thus resulting in greater efficiency, and bringing the cell's output power
closer to its theoretical maximum.

TYPES OF SOLAR PANEL :

Solar panels mainly are of two types :

1) Crystalline solar panels and

2) Thin film solar or amorphous solar panels.

O CRYSTALLINE SOLAR PANELS

These traditional solar panels can be either monocrystalline or polysilicon.Monocrystalline
panels are made from a large, single silicon crystal and have a patchwork pattern.
Polysilicon panels are made of lots of tiny silicon crystals and have a geometric pattern.
While monocrystalline panels are more efficient than polysilicon ones, they are also more
expensive. The efficiency of crystalline panels range from 12% to 20%, and they are almost
always the best choice for a home solar system. Following types of solar panels are available

1. Monscrystalline silicon solar panel: Most expensive but most efficient solar
panel.
2. Polycrystalline silicon solar panel: Less expensive but less efficient also

O THIN FILM SOLAR OR AMORPHOUS SOLAR PANELS

Thin film solar is cheaper than solar cells because they are made by coating a piece of glass
or steel with a thin layer of amorphous (non-crystalline) silicon, cadmium telluride, copper
indium, or diselenide . But since thin film solar is less efficient, more are needed to produce
the same amount of electricity as a crystalline panel.

NEEDS OF COATING ON SOLAR PANEL:

Improving the efficiency of photovoltaic cells is one of the great challenges for renewable
energy science. In the lab, the best cells can convert almost half the sunlight hitting them
into electricity (44 per cent) although for the figure commercial cells is less than half that.
Experimental evidences show that coated solar panel has higher solar efficiency as compare
to that of an uncoated one. Solar panels -- which convert energy from the sun into electricity
-- absorb only about two-thirds of available sunlight. But surfaces treated with a coating can
harvest 96.2 percent of sunlight. Main purposes of coating on solar panel are
o

To increase the absorption of incident solar light by minimizing its reflectance hence
by increasing its efficiency

To protect the surface from various atmospheric conditions.

To improve of durability & lifetime.

To improve of electrical conductivity.

To provide protection against electromagnetic interference (EMI) and frequency

interference (RFI).

To provide dielectric properties.

TYPES OF COATING ON SOLAR PANEL:

There are many types of coating methods possible in solar panel but the following fives are
mostly used :

1) ANTI-REFLECTIVE COATING (AR COATING).

2) CNT-GRAPHENE COMBING COATING.
1) NANOPARTICLE-BASED COATING.
2) SUPER HYDROPHOBIC COATING.
3) TIO2 BASED COATINGS.

1) ANTI-REFLECTIVE COATING (AR COATING)

For solar panels, in order to be at their most effective level, they need to absorb as higher
percentage of the light they are exposed to as possible. It is the photons found in daylight
that generate electricity so it is important solar panels absorb the most photons they can. A
major problem is that the sun moves throughout the day so the angle of the light hitting the
panel changes. This often results in light being reflected off the panels. Some solar panels
are designed to move gradually throughout the day to track the movement of the sun. This
allows for an optimum angle to be maintained and increases the light capture percentage.
However, this is an expensive process. As a result anti-reflective coatings have been touted
as a more viable option. Anti-reflection coatings on solar cells are similar to those used on
other optical equipment such as camera lenses. They consist of a thin layer of dielectric
material, with a specially chosen thickness so that interference effects in the coating cause
the wave reflected from the anti-reflection coating top surface to be out of phase with the
wave reflected from the semiconductor surfaces. These out-of-phase reflected waves
destructively interfere with one another, resulting in zero net reflected energy. In addition to
anti-reflection coatings, interference effects are also commonly encountered when a thin
layer of oil on water produces rainbow-like bands of colour.

Fig 3 : Absorption of light with coated and uncoated solar panel

Semi-conductor PV materials have refractive indices of 3.5- 4 in visible light wavelengths.

The surface will reflect more than35% of the incident energy unless coated for reflection
reduction. Figure 3 shows the uncoated and single-layer AR-coated reflectance from silicon
at wavelength 600nm. One way to improve is to minimize the amount of light reflected from
the cell or transmitted through it, since this energy is clearly lost. The conventional approach
is to use an anti-reflection coating which can be optimized to minimize reflections
particularly at the cells optimal frequencies.

Sn-doped Indium Oxide(ITO) AR coating :

Anti-reflective coatings (ARCs) play a very important role in optoelectronic devices,

particularly solar panels. The conventional ARCs are realized in general with a stack of thinfilm dielectric layers, which involves a detailed optical design and precise evaporation
controls to tailor for the broad solar spectrum. Over the past decade, versatile subwavelength structures (SWSs), such as biomimetic moth-eye structures and random nanorods, have demonstrated broadband and omni-directional antireflection characteristics. The
superior performance of SWSs results from a gradually varying structural profile or air
porosity which functions as a graded index (GRIN) buffer layer at the dielectric interface.
However, the elaborated fabrication processes involving either electron-beam (ebeam)
lithography and/or dry etching are not suitable for large-area solar cells.

Figure :4 (ac) Cross-sectional SEM images of one to three layers of spherical nanoshells. (d) Absorption spectra
corresponding to different numbers of layers of spherical nanoshells: one layer (black), two layers (red), three layers
(blue). A 100-nm thick tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) AR layer coating (dark green) further improves absorption of the threelayer film, with a total absorption of 75% of the above-bandgap solar spectrum.

The process induced surface recombination defects further deteriorate the device
performance, hindering the wide deployment of SWSs in photovoltaics. Consequently, SWSs
fabricated by using bottom-up growth methods are rather favorable for actual device
applications. The nano-whisker-coated solar cell exhibits superior omni directional and
broadband antireflective properties, compared to a conventional reference cell. As a result,
the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the cell with the nanowhisker ARC achieves
17.18%, compared to 16.08% of the control cell. The enhancement in the external quantum
efficiency (EQE) characteristics well matches the reduction in reflectivity, which confirms the
enhanced light transmission and nearly less photo-electric conversion facilitated by ITO
nanowhiskers. Moreover, angle-resolved reflectance spectroscopy and an angular current
voltage

system

are

established

to

correlate

the

angle-dependent

antireflection

characteristics to be short-circuit-current enhancement.

Zinc oxide/Porous silicon AR coating :

Effective conversion efficiency enhancement of solar cell using ZnO/PS anti-reflection
coating layers can also be done. Zinc oxide (ZnO) film is deposited on a porous silicon (PS)
layer using a radio frequency sputtering system while the PS layer is prepared by a photoelectrochemical etching method. The ZnO /PS layers is found to be an excellent
antireflection coating (ARC), exhibiting exceptional light trapping at wavelengths ranging
from 400 to 1000 nm because of their lowest effective reflectance. This, in turn, leads to
increase the efficiency of solar cell to 18.15%. The ZnO film is highly oriented with the c-axis

perpendicular to the PS layer. Photoluminescence emission peaks proved the nanocrystalline characteristic of the PS layer and the ZnO film.

Figure : 5 SEM image of ZnO / PS layers.

Black silicon AR coating :

Another way to reduce the reflectance of incident solar light on the solar panel is by
imposing black silicon atomic layer coating on the solar panel surface. Black silicon, with a
surface reflectance of below 1 percent, has long been an attractive material for use in
photovoltaic and other photonic applications. However, black silicon (b-Si) has poor charge
carrier transport properties and increased surface recombination, resulting in poor spectral
response, most notably at short wavelengths.

Figure : 6 Black Silicon (b-Si)

Good surface passivation is crucial for solar cells. So far, the poor charge carrier transport
properties attributed to nano-structured surfaces have been more detrimental for the final
device operation than the gain obtained from the reduced reflectance. This yields extremely
good surface passivation of the silicon nanostructures while simultaneously reducing the
reflectance at all wavelengths. Black Silicon solar cells are an exciting technology, as they
allow the absorption of infrared light in addition to the visible spectrum. Eventually, they
should lead to ultra-high-efficiency and low cost solar cells.

Magnesium fluoride /zinc sulphide (MgF2/ZnS) double layer AR coating :

Both magnesium fluoride/zinc sulphide (MgF2/ZnS) double layers deposited by electron

beam sputtering and titanium oxide (TiO2) double layers deposited by Atmospheric Pressure
Chemical Vapor Deposition shows very low reflectance over a broad wavelength range.
However, both techniques require a separately thermally grown silicon oxide (SiO2) layer for
surface passivation. Atmospheric pressure CVD operates at high deposition temperatures up
to 1300C where deposition rates up to 10 m/min can be achieved. Trichlorosilane (SiHCl3,
TCS) highly diluted in hydrogen is typically used as silicon source gas. In-situ layer doping is
achieved by adding suitable Silicon deposition techniques dopant gases, e.g. diborane
(B2H6) and phosphine (PH3) diluted in hydrogen for p-type and n-type doping respectively.

Sol-gel double layer AR coating :

Silicon solar cells have a high, real index of refraction across most of the solar spectrum,
from approximately 350 to 1100 nm, resulting in a large solar averaged reflectance loss of
about 36% for this material. This large

reflectance loss can be appreciably reduced by

coating the silicon with a thin, transparent dielectric layer with an appropriate dielectric
constant and thickness. Single-layer, antireflection (AR) coatings used to date have included
SiO, SiO2, TiO2, Si3N4, Ta2Os, and Al203 .The coating thickness in each case is adjusted so that
a minimum in reflectance occurs at approximately 600 nm. In this case, the reflectance
losses are reduced to 10 - 12%. Further reductions in the reflectance losses have been
obtained by Johnson et al. through the deposition of SiNx films with a graded composition so
that the index of refraction varies from 1.5 at the outer surface to 2.6 at the silicon
substrate. With these films, the reflectance losses are reduced to below 7%. By applying
double-layer antireflection coatings on silicon, the reflectance losses can be reduced even
further. Coatings were obtained with reflectance values as low as 5%, with the optimum
value predicted as being only 3%. Thin films of SiO: and TiO2 produced using the sol-gel
process has been used to provide AR coatings for silicon solar cells.

Figure : 7

Through proper control of the film thickness and index of refraction, the reflectance
averaged over a solar photon spectrum could be reduced to values approaching 0.04.
Coating a solar cell with these films increased the measured cell efficiency by 44%, which
was in good agreement with the measured increase in cell solar absorbance of 47%.
Therefore the high firing temperature of 450 C which is required to densify the sol-gel films
had no detrimental effect on cell performance. Optical modeling calculations, which used
thickness and index of refraction values determined from ellipsometric measurements, were
able to predict accurately the spectral reflectance properties of single-layer films of SiO 2 and
TiO2 on silicon, as well as those of the double-layer films. Based on the optical properties
determined for these films, modeling calculations determined that the optimum double-layer
coating should have an SiO: thickness of 95 nm and a TiO 2 thickness of 62 nm. Variation of
the SiO: thickness by +15 nm or the TiO: thickness by +10 nm increased the reflectance by
only 0.01 reflectance units relative to the optimum value. Transmission electron microscopy
and Rutherford back-scattering measurements both indicate that the interface between the
SiO: and a TiO2 film was very sharp and that no inter diffusion occurrs during the high
temperature firing process.

2) CNT-GRAPHENE COMBINING COATING :

Combining carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene or conducting polymers with conventional
silicon wafers leads to promising solar cell architectures with rapidly improved power
conversion efficiency until recently. Carbon nanotubes (CNT) are folded tubes made from a
single layer of graphite. Depending on the folding direction relative to the hexagonally
arranged carbon atoms, a variety of CNTs with different chiralities is possible. A large
percentage of SWNTs are semiconducting, while others exhibit metallic behavior. SWNTs can
be readily dispersed in water or organic solvents with the assistance of surfactants or
polymers, making them compatible with low-cost, large-area roll-to-roll coating processes.

Figure 8: Three forms of carbon nanomaterials for all-carbon-based solar cells applications: (a) graphene sheet, (b) carbon
nanotube and (c) buckyball

It is reported that efficiency of CNT-Si junction solar cells reaches 15% by coatings a
TiO2 antireflection layer and doping CNTs with oxidative chemicals. The TiO 2 layer
significantly inhibits light reflectance from the Si surface, resulting in much enhanced short circuit current (by 30%) and external quantum efficiency. There have been intensive efforts
in exploring innovated solar cell structures with high performance and cost-effective
manufacturing methods. Emerging competitive technologies include solar cells based on
organic molecules (with efficiencies of 7%) colloidal quantum dots (efficiencies reaching
6%), and dye-sensitized solar cells (efficiencies up to 12%). An alternative approach is to
combine inexpensive materials with well-established semiconductors (e.g. silicon) to create
new architectures that have the potential of simplifying fabrication processes and lowering
cost. Researches have explored various candidates, particularly transparent conductive films
of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene and semiconducting polymers that can be
conveniently deposited on commercial Si wafers to make efficient solar cells. During the past
years, considerable progresses have been achieved in this area and power conversion
efficiencies have been steadily enhanced to about 8% for graphene-Si and 13.8% for aciddoped CNT-Si cells. At this high level, even 1% increase of efficiency is critical for pushing
forward

practical

applications

and

sometimes

requires

substantial

modification

or

improvement of current cell structures. The light-to-electricity conversion in a solar cell

involves several key steps, including light absorption, charge separation and carrier
collection.

Figure : 9

The light absorption step determines how much fraction of incident photons can be
absorbed by the semiconductor and the excitation of charge carriers, therefore directly
influences the external quantum efficiency and cell efficiency. For planar substrates such as
polished Si, light reflection from their surface could be as high as 36%, resulting in
substantial energy loss in the light absorption stage. Antireflection structures such as
vertical semi-conducting nanowire arrays grown on or etched from a Si substrate,
nanodome-like amorphous Si films, and patterned Si nanocones with suitable aspect ratios

have been reported recently, and showed effective light trapping and reflection reduction for
the devices. Those approaches generally created a rough surface on top of the Si substrate
and involved complex photolithography techniques to make patterns. In addition, the nonsmooth Si surface may prevent conformal transfer of nanotube or graphene films and bring
additional charge recombination sites, for example, on the surface of patterned nanowires
and nanocones. Recently, several studies show, CNT-silicon solar cells that were fabricated
by transferring a semi-transparent CNT film onto a n-type single-crystalline Si wafer to form
Schottky junctions and hetero-junctions. By applying a series of doping and gating methods
such as SOCl2 treatment ionic liquid electrolyte infiltration and electronic gating as well as
nitric acid doping, the power conversion efficiencies of these CNT-Si cells have been
continuously pushed from initially about 1.3% to 13.8% (a ten-fold increase) during the past
several years, indicating a very promising architecture with reduced manufacturing cost and
also the potential of achieving high performance.

3) NANOPARTICLE-BASED COATING :
Organic solar cells have recently reached power conversion efficiencies above 5% ,
showing promise as renewable energy sources. Consequently, there has been significant
interest to develop in-line compatible deposition methods in order to achieve inexpensive
and large area devices. Among the various structures developed for organic solar cells are
solution processed polymer solar cells based on a polymer/fullerene bulk hetero junction.
Several groups have reported the fabrication of the active layer of polymer solar cells by
alternative deposition methods, including inkjet, screen printing, doctor blading and spray
coating with results similar to that of spin coating. The efforts have been mainly focused on
the deposition of the organic active material leaving the last step of the production process,
the top contact deposition, primarily to the vacuum deposition of a low work function metal.
Ultimately, alternative methods for the top contact deposition which are compatible with
printing technologies need to be developed in order to reduce production costs. A few
attempts to replace the vacuum evaporated metal with solution-processable conductive
materials mainly focused on doped conjugated polymers such as polyanilines, polypyroles or
poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly-(styrenesulfonate)

(PEDOT:PSS)

which

are

nevertheless characterized by lower electrical conductivity and poorer electrical/thermal

stability compared to metals. Metal nanoparticle (NP) based inks are more often used to
demonstrate solution-based, highly conductive pathways and contacts, generally obtained
by sintering via annealing at relatively low temperatures, or else by laser or microwave
treatment. These conductive metals have for example been used in the production of thinfilm transistors (TFTs), where they serve as source and drain electrodes. Their deposition on
top of organic semiconductors, however, is challenging because organic materials are
damaged either by the temperatures required for sintering the NPs or by the solvent
dissolving the underlying layer. Most of the research has thus focused on the production of
bottom-contact devices, where ink-jet printing has been used to pattern lines on the
substrates, either glass, silicon or plastic foils. In this way, the constraints on the process are
not severe, since the sintering temperature and solvent choice are only limited by the
substrate. The deposition of metal NPs on top of organic semiconductors requires, then, to
overcome these two limitations. Recently it has been found the top contact TFTs with a silver
solution deposited directly onto the solar panel surface using a sub-femtoliter ink-jet printer.
Also it is important to deposit small volumes of a silver ink on top of the organic material in
order to limit the degradation of the transistor performance caused by a large amount of
solvent. Reducing the volume of each droplet makes it possible to manufacture TFTs with
characteristics comparable to those with vacuum evaporated top contacts. Nevertheless,
this deposition method is not easily applicable to organic solar cells, where the need for a
fast deposition technique able to cover large area contacts is contradictory to the precise
deposition of well aligned, micron-scale droplets. An attempt to produce solar cells with an
inkjet printed silver top contact can also found albeit for devices with a limited performance.
Yielding solar cell with efficiencies close to those with evaporated contact can be achieved
by spraying a coat of Ag NP film followed by sintering at low temperatures to achieved a
solution processed and patterned metal contact deposited directly on the top of organic
device.

Figure : 10 : (a) Structure, (b) SEM and (c) FIB/TEM cross sections of the inverted polymer solar cell with a spray coated
Ag top contact. The white scale bars represent 100 nm. The arrows indicate voids between PEDOT:PSS and the Ag NPs,
while the circle highlights a NP embedded within the PEDOT:PSS layer.

4) SUPER HYDROPHOBIC COATING :

A self-cleaning effect developed through the use of a super hydrophobic and waterrepellent surface was demonstrated for solar cell applications. A perfectly ordered microshell
array that is fabricated on a transparent and flexible polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomer
surface shows an excellent water-repellent property with a contact angle (CA) higher than
150 and a hysteresis of lower than 20, even without the aid of a low surface energy chemical
coating. Super hydrophobic microshell PDMS shows a superior dust cleaning effect compared
to that of flat PDMS, preventing the degradation by dust particles of solar cell efficiency. This
transparent, flexible and super-hydrophobic microshell PDMS surface provides feasibility for
a practical application of super-hydrophobic surfaces in solar cells.
It is commonly claimed that the self-cleaning property of a super-hydrophobic coated
surface can be used in solar cell applications. Accumulation of airborne dust or particles on
solar cell panels degrades solar cell efficiency. Solar cell installed at a 45 angle accrues a
decrease in the output power of about 17.4% per month due to airborne dust. This situation
is aggravated if the solar cell is installed at a lower tilting angle, a case which is favorable for
higher efficiency in power generation. Although rainfall can partly remove the dust from the
panel, it can adversely leave other debris on the panel when the panel dries. Considering
that solar cell modules are often the power supply for remote or rarely visited areas such as
unmanned lighthouses and observatories, efficiency degradation due to panel dust can be
problematic.
Applying a transparent super-hydrophobic surface to the solar cell panel has been
expected to prevent the efficiency degradation caused by the accumulation of dust particles.
A novel cylindrical nanoshell structure shows a water-repellent property superior to that of
the conventional pillar-like structure even without the aid of a low surface energy chemical
coating. Inspired by the structural properties of nanoshell array, superhydrophobic
cylindrical microshell structures have been patterned on a transparent and flexible
polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate. This self-cleaning microshell PDMS surface is
notable for its simple fabrication process, its excellent cleaning effect, and its practicability
for use in commercialized solar cell panels.

Figure : 11 : Experimental procedure of dust cleaning on PDMS surface. (a)Molding process of PDMS replica, (b) spraying
of dust particles on thePDMS replica, (c) washing process of dust particles on a tilted stage, and(d) measurement of
cleaning efciency on solar cell module.

The fabrication process of the microshell PDMS array is shown in Fig. 11 First, an array of
oxide ring-like patterns is formed on a bulk silicon wafer by reactive ion etching (RIE). Then,
using the oxide as a masking layer, a trench profile is obtained in the bulk silicon substrate
by RIE. Subsequently, an anti-adhesion layer, on a silicon trench substrate facilitates the
detachment of PDMS replica from the silicon trench. Afterwards, the PDMS solution is cast on
the silicon trench substrate. Finally, the PDMS replica is detached from the silicon wafer,
forming microshell array patterns on the PDMS surface.

The dust removal effect on the

microshell PDMS array is tested by following the experimental procedures detailed in Fig. 11.
First, dust was sprayed onto the microshell PDMS inside a contamination chamber. Carbon
powder, of which size ranged from a few microns to a few hundred microns, is used as the
source of the dust particles so that the experiment could mimic natural processes. After the
deposition of the dust particles, the surface is tilted to 45. With this tilt angle, droplets were
released onto the surface to wash away the carbon dust,

Figure :12

as shown in Fig. 12. The droplets are released at a constant rate while gradually moving the
sample to the left side of the stage. As a result, a droplet gradually washes away the carbon
powder on the microshell PDMS array. Finally, the cleansed microshell PDMS array is
carefully placed on a solar cell.

Figure: 13

After cleaning, solar cell efficiency of the microshell PDMS recovers back to 9.76%, showing
a 71.8% recovery rate. The curves are marked as dotted lines in Fig. 13. Note in the graph
that Jsc is the major contributor that affects the solar cell efficiency. Other solar cell
parameters such as open-circuit voltage (Voc) and fill factor (FF) does not show significant
change in their values, supporting the idea that the degradation of solar cell efficiency is

caused by the dust particles. This is because dust blocking the light decreases only the
current level while having no effect on Voc or on the series or shunt resistance of the solar
cell. Complete recovery of efficiency to its initial value in the microshell PDMS was not
observed because particles of sizes smaller than the pitch of the microshell residing between
the structures are less likely to be washed away. Therefore, further optimization of the
microshell array design is needed to prevent the particles from residing between the
structures. However, actual raindrops falling at high speed should wash away the particles
more effectively than the gently rolling droplets. Hence super-hydrophobic surface can
actually prevent the degradation of solar cell efficiency through a self-cleaning effect much
superior to that of non-super-hydrophobic surfaces.

5) TiO2 BASED COATING :

Since a highly efficient (10%) dye-sensitized solar cells (DSC) was reported by Regan
et al., DSC has become the most promising alternative to conventional silicon solar cell and
has been currently investigated extensively. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) based coating is one of
the key components influencing the performance of DSC. Nanoporous TiO2 coating of high
porosity has been fabricated as DSCs electrode to increase surface area and to provide high
light harvesting by a monolayer of sufficiently adsorbed dye. High porosity is also beneficial
for diffusion of reversible redox couples through TiO2 membranes. Several processing
methods, including doctor blading, spin coating, screen printing and layer by layer
deposition have been employed to deposit nanocrystalline TiO2 coatings applied to DSC.
With all those processes, TiO2 films are prepared from TiO2 slurry or suspension in water
with other additives such as detergent and composite polyanion. The film is formed through
evaporation of water in the ambient atmosphere, which leads to the agglomeration TiO2
particles in nanometer. Although DSC of a reasonable efficiency has been prepared using
TiO2 coatings through those processes, it is still necessary to develop a more efficient
coating deposition process for TiO2 coating used in DSC. Thermal spraying process has been
widely employed to deposit TiO2 coatings owing to its flexibility and high deposition
efficiency. However, the usage of powders in a size of several tens micrometers makes it
difficult to deposit thin coating in about 10 micrometer. Moreover, the necessity of fully or
partially melting of powder results in additional difficulty to control microstructure of coating.
With metallic alloy, a dense coating can be deposited by cold spraying with solid particles in
a size from several micrometers to several tens micrometers at ambient atmosphere. It has
been

demonstrated

that

nanostructured

TiO2

coating

with

active

photocatalytic

performance can be deposited by cold spraying using an agglomerated nanosized TiO2

particles. A recent study revealed that a ceramic coating can be directly deposited using

solid ceramic particles in a size of submicrometers under a reduced atmosphere at a room

temperature. Through this process, the microstructure of ceramic coating can be easily
controlled. In terms of cold spraying using solid particles, here the deposition of ceramic
coating using submicrometer particles under a reduced atmosphere is referred to as vacuum
cold spraying.

In vacuum cold spray (VCS) system, TiO2 coating is deposited using a nanocrystalline
TiO2 powder applied to DSC. The controlling of microstructure of coating is generally done
through TiO2 powder mixed with polyethylene glycol (PEG) in different contents. The dyesensitized solar cell assembled using VCS TiO2 coating presents high output efficiency which
is comparable to that of the conventional wet doctor blading method.

CONCLUSION:
Organic solar cells have recently reached power conversion efficiencies above 5%, showing
promise as renewable energy sources. Consequently, there has been significant interest to
develop in-line compatible deposition methods in order to achieve inexpensive and large
area devices. Building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) systems represent an interesting,
alternative approach for increasing the available area for electricity production and
potentially for further reducing the cost of solar electricity. Solar panel efficiencies can also
be improved by stacking different solar cells together, but combining solar cells is expensive
with conventional solar-cell materials.
Current studies & research on solar coating show that its possible to reach at solar cell
efficiency of 34%. Some disadvantages including, use of PbO in solar coating that causes
oxygen deficiency in the surrounding atmosphere or degradation of chemical substances
present in the coating in presence of UV light are the biggest challenges to overcome. It is
also necessary that coating on a solar panel must posses a good service life, so that in
future, in many ways of our life we can easily replace the conventional energy system by a
non polluting energy source.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank top management of British Paints for giving me opportunity to write
this technical article. I thank Mr. S Sharma (President, British Paints), Mr. Ranjit Singh
(COO British Paints), Mr. S Bhattacharya (Sr. General Manager, British Paints) and Mr.
Rohit Raj (Chief Manager, R&D British Paints) for providing their constant support and
motivation. I would also like to thank Mr Mukul Chauhan (Asst Manager, British Paints)
for providing valuable inputs for the article.
I am also very thankful to colleagues for their constant support.

Shibajit Mukherjee
Executive- R&D
British Paints.
(A DIVISION OF BERGER PAINTS)

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