Sustainable manufacturing of 3D-Printed cyclic olefin copolymer coversheets with gahnite for enhanced silicon photovoltaic efficiency

Solar energy plays a vital role in the renewable and pollution-free energy generation. A significant amount of solar energy can be generated through the utilization of solar photovoltaics and collectors. The application of antireflective coatings is an essential factor that effectively absorbs the incident solar radiation and enhances the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the photovoltaic cells. This study presents the sustainable manufacturing of cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) coversheet on the polycrystalline silicon photovoltaic cells through 3D printing technique to reduce the reflection losses. In addition, gahnite (ZnAl₂O₄) was added with COC at varying weight percentages to enhance the antireflection characteristics. The PV cells covered by COC with gahnite (COCG) coversheets are analyzed for structural, thermal, mechanical, electrical and optical behaviour. As seen, the COC with 3 wt% of gahnite (CS3) exhibits optimal power conversion efficiency (PCE) in both open (18.06 %) and controlled (18.87 %) environment. The optical analysis clearly shows that the sample CS3 achieves lowest reflectance of 4.23 % and highest transmittance of 95.47 %, which significantly increases the absorbance. The results from current investigation demonstrated that COCG could be an ideal antireflection coversheet that effectively improves the PCE of polycrystalline PV cells.