Chemical synthesis of silver nanoparticles for solar cell applications

Abstract

A novel approach to fabricate silver nanoparticles for light trapping applications in silicon based solar cells has been demonstrated. Silver nanoparticles of various sizes have been synthesized by chemical reduction reactions. The particle size in the colloidal solutions was varied by using two different reducing compounds in addition to altering the compositions of the mixtures. In the present work, deposition of the silver nanoparticles onto a conventional bulk silicon solar cell shows an increase in the quantum efficiency at longer wavelengths, indicating the utilization of incident radiation that is normally lost in poor absorbing silicon (© 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)