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. 2022 Sep 19;12(18):3249.
doi: 10.3390/nano12183249.

A New Texturing Approach of a Polyimide Shielding Cover for Enhanced Light Propagation in Photovoltaic Devices

Iuliana Stoica  1 , Raluca Marinica Albu  1 , Camelia Hulubei  1 , Dragos George Astanei  2 , Radu Burlica  2 , Gaber A M Mersal  3 , Tarek A Seaf Elnasr  4 , Andreea Irina Barzic  1 , Ashraf Y Elnaggar  5
Affiliations

A New Texturing Approach of a Polyimide Shielding Cover for Enhanced Light Propagation in Photovoltaic Devices

Iuliana Stoica et al. Nanomaterials (Basel). .

Abstract

The efficiency of photovoltaics (PVs) is related to cover material properties and light management in upper layers of the device. This article investigates new polyimide (PI) covers for PVs that enable light trapping through their induced surface texture. The latter is attained via a novel strategy that involves multi-directional rubbing followed by plasma exposure. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is utilized to clarify the outcome of the proposed light-trapping approach. Since a deep clarification of either random or periodic surface morphology is responsible for the desired light capturing in solar cells, the elaborated texturing procedure generates a balance among both discussed aspects. Multidirectional surface abrasion with sand paper on pre-defined directions of the PI films reveals some relevant modifications regarding both surface morphology and the resulted degree of anisotropy. The illuminance experiments are performed to examine if the created surface texture is suitable for proper light propagation through the studied PI covers. The adhesion among the upper layers of the PV, namely the PI and transparent electrode, is evaluated. The correlation between the results of these analyses helps to identify not only adequate polymer shielding materials, but also to understand the chemical structure response to new design routes for light-trapping, which might significantly contribute to an enhanced conversion efficiency of the PV devices.

Keywords: adhesion; illuminance; morphology; multi-directional rubbing; polyimide; solar cells.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Illustration of the rubbing process: (A) SEM images of the sandpaper evidencing the individual grains layout and appearance. The yellow box represents the zone where the sandpaper was scanned at higher magnitude; (B) rubbing directions; (C) schematic representation of the rubbing device; (D) simulated structured polymer surfaces.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Schematic diagram of experimental set-up.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Discharge voltage and current waveforms.
Figure 4
Figure 4
2D topographical images, furrow maps and histograms/Abbott curves obtained for pristine EPI-pBAPS (A–C) and pristine CBDA-pBAPS (D–F) samples.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Abbott–Firestone curves with functional volume parameters, texture direction representations and graphs with polar coordinates to analyze orientation with azimuth angle obtained for pristine EPI-pBAPS (A–C) and pristine CBDA-pBAPS (D–F) samples.
Figure 6
Figure 6
2D topographical images, furrow maps and histograms/Abbott curves obtained for rubbed EPI-pBAPS (1R) (A–C), EPI-pBAPS (2R) (D–F) and EPI-pBAPS (3R) (G–I) samples.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Abbott–Firestone curves with functional volume parameters, texture direction representations and graphs with polar coordinates to analyze orientation with azimuth angle obtained for rubbed EPI-pBAPS (1R) (A–C), EPI-pBAPS (2R) (D–F) and EPI-pBAPS (3R) (G–I) samples.
Figure 8
Figure 8
2D topographical images, furrow maps and histograms/Abbott curves obtained for rubbed CBDA-pBAPS (1R) (A–C), CBDA-pBAPS (2R) (D–F) and CBDA-pBAPS (3R) (G–I) samples.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Abbott–Firestone curves with functional volume parameters, texture direction representations and graphs with polar coordinates to analyze orientation with azimuth angle obtained for rubbed CBDA-pBAPS (1R) (A–C), CBDA-pBAPS (2R) (D–F) and CBDA-pBAPS (3R) (G–I) samples.
Figure 10
Figure 10
2D topographical images, furrow maps, grains distribution and grains cross-section profiles obtained for plasma-treated rubbed EPI-pBAPS (3R) (A–D) and CBDA-pBAPS (3R) (E–H) samples.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Abbott–Firestone curves with functional volume parameters, texture direction representations and graphs with polar coordinates to analyze orientation with azimuth angle obtained for DBD plasma-treated rubbed EPI-pBAPS (3R) (A–C) and CBDA-pBAPS (3R) (D–F) samples.
Figure 12
Figure 12
Illuminance variation with each step of the PI surface modification.
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