Flexible solar cells based on foldable silicon wafers with blunted edges

Wenzhu Liu; Yujing Liu; Ziqiang Yang; Changqing Xu; Xiaodong Li; Shenglei Huang; Jianhua Shi; Junling Du; Anjun Han; Yuhao Yang; Guoning Xu; Jian Yu; Jiajia Ling; Jun Peng; Liping Yu; Bin Ding; Yuan Gao; Kai Jiang; Zhenfei Li; Yanchu Yang; Zhaojie Li; Shihu Lan; Haoxin Fu; Bin Fan; Yanyan Fu; Wei He; Fengrong Li; Xin Song; Yinuo Zhou; Qiang Shi; Guangyuan Wang; Lan Guo; Jingxuan Kang; Xinbo Yang; Dongdong Li; Zhechao Wang; Jie Li; Sigurdur Thoroddsen; Rong Cai; Fuhai Wei; Guoqiang Xing; Yi Xie; Xiaochun Liu; Liping Zhang; Fanying Meng; Zengfeng Di; Zhengxin Liu

doi:10.1038/s41586-023-05921-z

Flexible solar cells based on foldable silicon wafers with blunted edges

Nature. 2023 May;617(7962):717-723. doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-05921-z. Epub 2023 May 24.

Authors

Wenzhu Liu^#^{1

2}, Yujing Liu^#³, Ziqiang Yang^#⁴, Changqing Xu^#⁵, Xiaodong Li^{6

7}, Shenglei Huang^{6

8}, Jianhua Shi^{6

9}, Junling Du^{6

9}, Anjun Han^{6

9}, Yuhao Yang⁶, Guoning Xu¹⁰, Jian Yu¹¹, Jiajia Ling¹², Jun Peng¹³, Liping Yu¹⁴, Bin Ding¹⁴, Yuan Gao¹⁴, Kai Jiang^{6

7}, Zhenfei Li⁶, Yanchu Yang¹⁰, Zhaojie Li¹⁰, Shihu Lan⁹, Haoxin Fu⁹, Bin Fan⁹, Yanyan Fu¹⁵, Wei He¹⁶, Fengrong Li¹⁶, Xin Song¹⁷, Yinuo Zhou⁶, Qiang Shi⁶, Guangyuan Wang⁶, Lan Guo^{6

8}, Jingxuan Kang¹⁸, Xinbo Yang¹⁹, Dongdong Li²⁰, Zhechao Wang²¹, Jie Li²¹, Sigurdur Thoroddsen⁴, Rong Cai¹⁰, Fuhai Wei²¹, Guoqiang Xing⁹, Yi Xie⁹, Xiaochun Liu²², Liping Zhang^{23

24

25}, Fanying Meng^{26

27}, Zengfeng Di²⁸, Zhengxin Liu^{29

30}

Affiliations

¹ Research Center for New Energy Technology, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China. wenzhu.liu@mail.sim.ac.cn.
² University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. wenzhu.liu@mail.sim.ac.cn.
³ Institute of Metals, College of Material Science and Engineering, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha, China.
⁴ Division of Physical Science and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Division of Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Science and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Research Center for New Energy Technology, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
⁷ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
⁸ School of Physical Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China.
⁹ Tongwei Solar Company, Chengdu, China.
¹⁰ Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
¹¹ Institute of Photovoltaics, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, China.
¹² UISEE Technologies, Shanghai, China.
¹³ Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Carbon-Based Functional Materials and Devices, Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials, Soochow University, Suzhou, China.
¹⁴ Institute of Solid Mechanics, Beihang University, Beijing, China.
¹⁵ State Key Laboratory of Transducer Technology, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
¹⁶ Key Laboratory of Wireless Sensor Networks and Communications of CAS, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
¹⁷ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Photovoltaic Science and Engineering, Changzhou University, Changzhou, China.
¹⁸ Paul-Drude-Institut für Festkörperelektronik, Leibniz Institut, Berlin, Germany.
¹⁹ College of Energy, Soochow Institute for Energy and Materials Innovations, Soochow University, Suzhou, China.
²⁰ The Interdisciplinary Research Center, Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
²¹ Polar Research Institute of China, Shanghai, China.
²² Institute of Metals, College of Material Science and Engineering, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha, China. xcliu@csust.edu.cn.
²³ Research Center for New Energy Technology, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China. zlp_wan@mail.sim.ac.cn.
²⁴ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. zlp_wan@mail.sim.ac.cn.
²⁵ Tongwei Solar Company, Chengdu, China. zlp_wan@mail.sim.ac.cn.
²⁶ Research Center for New Energy Technology, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China. fymeng@mail.sim.ac.cn.
²⁷ Tongwei Solar Company, Chengdu, China. fymeng@mail.sim.ac.cn.
²⁸ State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China. zfdi@mail.sim.ac.cn.
²⁹ Research Center for New Energy Technology, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China. z.x.liu@mail.sim.ac.cn.
³⁰ Tongwei Solar Company, Chengdu, China. z.x.liu@mail.sim.ac.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Flexible solar cells have a lot of market potential for application in photovoltaics integrated into buildings and wearable electronics because they are lightweight, shockproof and self-powered. Silicon solar cells have been successfully used in large power plants. However, despite the efforts made for more than 50 years, there has been no notable progress in the development of flexible silicon solar cells because of their rigidity^1-4. Here we provide a strategy for fabricating large-scale, foldable silicon wafers and manufacturing flexible solar cells. A textured crystalline silicon wafer always starts to crack at the sharp channels between surface pyramids in the marginal region of the wafer. This fact enabled us to improve the flexibility of silicon wafers by blunting the pyramidal structure in the marginal regions. This edge-blunting technique enables commercial production of large-scale (>240 cm²), high-efficiency (>24%) silicon solar cells that can be rolled similarly to a sheet of paper. The cells retain 100% of their power conversion efficiency after 1,000 side-to-side bending cycles. After being assembled into large (>10,000 cm²) flexible modules, these cells retain 99.62% of their power after thermal cycling between -70 °C and 85 °C for 120 h. Furthermore, they retain 96.03% of their power after 20 min of exposure to air flow when attached to a soft gasbag, which models wind blowing during a violent storm.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't