Three dimensional anti-reflection nanocone film

Abstract

Disclosed are three-dimensional nanocone film layers and associated devices. The nanocone film layers exhibit desirable properties such as anti-reflection, hydrophobicity, and low cost production. The nanocone film layers can be utilized to cover the surface of a photovoltaic cell and provide benefits to the photovoltaic cell such as enhance its light absorption capability, provide protection from moisture, increase efficiency of converting light to electricity, facilitate self-cleaning, and other such benefits. Furthermore, in an aspect, methods of fabricating three-dimensional nanocone film layers are disclosed herein.

Description

[0001] related application [0002] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61 / 963,020, filed November 21, 2013, entitled "LOW-COSTAND FLEXIBLE THREE-DIMENSIONAL NANOCONEANTI-REFLECTION FILMS WITH SELF-CLEANING FUNCTION FOR HIGH-EFFICIENCY PHOTOVOLTAICS" rights, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. technical field [0003] The subject disclosure generally relates to nanocone films, the fabrication of nanocone films, and applications that can take advantage of the antireflective properties, hydrophobic properties, ability to facilitate debris removal, and other such uses of nanocone films. Background technique [0004] The need to enhance the efficiency of photovoltaic devices is growing. Photovoltaic devices work by capturing solar energy and converting it into electricity. A very important capability of photovoltaic cells is to capture incident light for conversion into electricity, thus becoming more effic...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Another limitation of existing antireflective coatings is that their manufacture requires expensive chemical and physical deposition processes, which often result in high mass production costs

Furthermore, many manufacturing processes incorporate photovoltaic materials into the microstructure, which can cause various defects that increase surface recombination of coating materials and ultimately reduce the performance of solar devices

In addition, existing coating manufacturing methods implement top-down or bottom-up manufacturing methods, which inhibit the control and precision associated with the desired end product

[0006] A need exists for new photovoltaic cell coatings and fabrication methods to address the problems associated with photovoltaic cell coatings such as poor antireflection, expensive fabrication, reduced energy conversion, limited light absorption, and accumulation of surface debris

Images