Capillary flow of amorphous metal for high performance electrode.

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology
• Renewable Energy

Background:

• Screen-printed silver electrodes are crucial for solar cells.
• Achieving high electrode performance requires infiltration of metallic glass (MG) into nanoscale cavities between silver (Ag) particles.
• Current methods often rely on electroplating, which can be less efficient or more costly.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the use of metallic glass (MG) in screen-printed silver electrodes for enhanced electrical contact and performance.
• To understand the infiltration mechanism of MG in the supercooled state into nanoscale gaps between Ag particles.
• To demonstrate the potential of MG as a replacement for electroplating in solar cell electrode fabrication.

Main Methods:

• Utilized computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and density functional theory (DFT) simulations to analyze MG flow behavior.
• Investigated the capillary effect enabling MG infiltration into nanometer-scale cavities.
• Fabricated and tested screen-printed silver electrodes incorporating Al85Ni5Y8Co2 MG.

Main Results:

• Metallic glass in a supercooled state rapidly infiltrates nanometer-scale gaps between Ag particles via capillary action.
• The study elucidates the formation mechanism of Ag electrodes with MG addition.
• Al85Ni5Y8Co2 MG addition to Ag electrodes resulted in a record high cell efficiency of 20.30% for screen-printed interdigitated back contact solar cells.

Conclusions:

• Metallic glass effectively enhances electrical contact in screen-printed silver electrodes, achieving performance comparable to electroplated electrodes.
• The capillary-driven infiltration of supercooled MG offers a rapid and efficient method for improving electrode conductivity.
• This research presents a viable screen-printing approach, potentially replacing traditional electroplating processes for fabricating high-performance solar cell electrodes.