(JW Insights) June 8 -- Chinese researchers have provided a strategy for fabricating large-scale, foldable silicon wafers and manufacturing flexible solar cells, according to a recent research article published in the journal Nature, Xinhua reported on June 7.

A textured crystalline silicon wafer always tends to crack at the sharp channels between surface pyramids in the marginal region of the wafer. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the flexibility of silicon wafers by blunting the pyramidal structure in the marginal regions.

The researchers from the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences acknowledged that the edge-blunting technique enables commercial production of large-scale, high-efficiency silicon solar cells that can be rolled similarly to a sheet of paper.

The cells retain 100 percent of their power conversion efficiency after 1,000 side-to-side bending cycles, according to the research article. After being assembled into large flexible modules, these cells retain more than 99 percent of their power after thermal cycling between minus 70 degrees Celsius and 85 degrees Celsius for 120 hours.

Furthermore, the cells retain 96 percent of their power after 20 min of exposure to airflow when attached to a soft gasbag, which models wind blowing during a violent storm.

The large-scale flexible photovoltaic (PV) modules, developed by the research team, have been successfully applied to near-space vehicles, and PVs on buildings and vehicles, said the Xinhua report.

(Yuan XY/Gao J)