One-step synthesis of hybrid silver particles for front contact paste for crystalline silicon solar cells

This paper reports a one-step synthesis of hybrid rod-like and spherical silver particles and its application in the silver front contact paste for crystalline silicon solar cells. The hybrid silver particles were synthesized by reducing silver nitrate in ethylene glycol. X-ray diffraction indicated that the hybrid silver particles were well crystallized with no crystallographic impurities. Scanning electron microscopy showed that the rod-like particles in the hybrid particles were 0.2 A mu m to 0.5 A mu m in width and 1 A mu m to 4 A mu m in length, and that the average size of the spherical particles was 0.5 A mu m. The fabricated crystalline silicon solar cell based on the as-prepared hybrid silver particles showed good photovoltaic performance.