Comparative Analysis of Etching Techniques for Low Reflectivity in Mono Silicon Wafers for Solar Cell Application

Surface texturing of mono crystalline Silicon (mono-Si) wafers can reduce incident light reflectance and hence boost a solar cell’s conversion efficiency. This study uses acid texturization to improve the optical properties of mono–Si wafers. The main goal of this study is to reduce the time required to achieve low reflectivity during thesurface texturing of mono-Si wafers using various chemical solutions. The N-type mono-Si wafers were initially cleaned with acetone and then etched using a KOH: IP: DIwater solution in a 1:1:17 ratio. This was followed by three set of chemical etching process: HF:HNO ₃ :KMnO ₄ , HF:H ₂ O ₂ :KMnO ₄ , and HF:H ₂ SO ₄ :KMnO ₄ solutions,eachused in a 3:2:1 ratio. The outcomes of the 1, 2and 3 minutes etching processes were compared with those of the initial KOH etched and mono-Si raw wafer. UV-Visible reflectance, optical microscopy, FTIR analysis, and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), were used to examine the etched mono-Si wafers. Among the chemical etching solutions,HF:H ₂ SO ₄ :KMnO ₄ demonstrated reduced reflectance and shorter processing times, thereby enhancing the absorptionof incident photons in solar cell application.