A sustainable preparation method of superhydrophobic polymer film for improving the practical efficiency of solar cells

Zhi Chen, Shuang Lu, Yumeng Wei, Zhizhong Zhang, Guojun Zhang, Jian Li and Fenglin Han

Renewable Energy, 2025, vol. 246, issue C

Abstract: Due to some adverse environmental factors (such as: surface reflection, dust, snow and ice), the actual efficiency of solar cells is much lower than the maximum design efficiency. Constructing a self-cleaning and anti-icing superhydrophobic micro-nano structure on the surface of solar cells is a very promising method to reduce the impact of adverse environmental factors on their actual efficiency. Addressing the challenges of low preparation efficiency and difficulty in large-scale preparation in traditional methods for preparing superhydrophobic polymer films on solar cells surface, this paper proposes a new method of roll-to-roll micro-nano imprinting method for preparing superhydrophobic polymer film. Experimental data shows that: (1) The preparation efficiency of superhydrophobic polymer films can reach 150,720 mm2/min, which is 10–100 times higher than the preparation efficiency of traditional methods. (2) The contact angle of the polymer film can be up to 154°. (3) The polymer films have been proven to have the good capabilities of anti-icing and self-cleaning. (4) The transparency of polymer film can be up to 93.3 %. (5) The prepared polymer films can decrease the reducing of the output current of the solar cell due to dust accumulation from 9.28 % to 1.21 %.

Keywords: Superhydrophobic polymer film; Roll-to-roll micro-nano imprinting; Solar cell; Practical efficiency; Sustainable preparation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:246:y:2025:i:c:s0960148125006111

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2025.122949

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