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

Comparative Analysis of Etching Techniques for Low Reflectivity in Mono Silicon Wafers for Solar Cell Application | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Comparative Analysis of Etching Techniques for Low Reflectivity in Mono Silicon Wafers for Solar Cell Application Mariyappan Raman, Hariprasath Murugesan, Srinivasan Manickam, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6635197/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract 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. Etching Solar cell mono-crystalline silicon Reflectance Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6635197","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":466481502,"identity":"5dc70f25-12e9-416d-bec6-2f9562335134","order_by":0,"name":"Mariyappan Raman","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Mariyappan","middleName":"","lastName":"Raman","suffix":""},{"id":466481503,"identity":"1ea57c20-2a5a-4225-997f-552e3bc89c11","order_by":1,"name":"Hariprasath Murugesan","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Hariprasath","middleName":"","lastName":"Murugesan","suffix":""},{"id":466481504,"identity":"dfb19698-b48e-448a-9897-312d1ed0e35e","order_by":2,"name":"Srinivasan Manickam","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA4ElEQVRIie3PMQrCMBSA4YRAugRdLVV6hUL35ioNXbs5SYcqhbjkBt4jF8jQpTgLLq2CewehQgcTXZzaugnmH5I35CMJADbbTwa3IH4Pu1qvZDaZEACLwOx48mUEALwwwyjxD4rXdR9R6im+uafREgPUXE4DJDiyfcB4wsSM8fNKJvphOAzTIUIgX7Atiokezq5EmhDsDRFfaBL3OTVk7cp8nIDKEKyg0AS2Uo2TwBDGSyYqWHhQlgSjkb/4wrm5XZ9RRzhN+5AZnTtFcx182GeIvNapx02w++a0zWaz/U1P6wY/mACmc0gAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Srinivasan","middleName":"","lastName":"Manickam","suffix":""},{"id":466481505,"identity":"2c80e344-3c05-4eb8-8f4e-445085e0a32e","order_by":3,"name":"Keerthivasan Thamotharan","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Nagoya University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Keerthivasan","middleName":"","lastName":"Thamotharan","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-05-10 13:53:27","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6635197/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6635197/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":85725418,"identity":"5afda3c4-8f45-455a-ac4b-6c14a7ff9149","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-07-01 06:32:10","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":938469,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Manuscript.MonoEtchingpaper.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6635197/v1_covered_ada05bc1-6143-4c69-9b58-753646df8d56.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Comparative Analysis of Etching Techniques for Low Reflectivity in Mono Silicon Wafers for Solar Cell Application","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Etching, Solar cell, mono-crystalline silicon, Reflectance","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6635197/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6635197/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eSurface 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\u003csub\u003e3\u003c/sub\u003e:KMnO\u003csub\u003e4\u003c/sub\u003e, HF:H\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003eO\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003e:KMnO\u003csub\u003e4\u003c/sub\u003e, and HF:H\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003eSO\u003csub\u003e4\u003c/sub\u003e:KMnO\u003csub\u003e4\u003c/sub\u003e 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\u003csub\u003e2\u003c/sub\u003eSO\u003csub\u003e4\u003c/sub\u003e:KMnO\u003csub\u003e4\u003c/sub\u003e demonstrated reduced reflectance and shorter processing times, thereby enhancing the absorptionof incident photons in solar cell application.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Comparative Analysis of Etching Techniques for Low Reflectivity in Mono Silicon Wafers for Solar Cell Application","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-06-06 15:00:56","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6635197/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"67cb1dd7-fd21-4f08-8feb-c17deab21f93","owner":[],"postedDate":"June 6th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-07-01T06:23:54+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-06-06 15:00:56","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-6635197","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-6635197","identity":"rs-6635197","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}