Fabrication of Large-Area Photovoltaic Crystal with Modified Surface Using Trimethoxysilyl Propyl Methacrylate (TMSPM) for Solar Cell Protection

Protection of solar cell surface is important to prevent from dust, pollen, sand, etc. Therefore, development of large area antifouling film is urgent for high performance of solar cells. The surface of silica spheres was modified to fabricate large area antifouling film. The surface of monodisperse silica spheres has been modified with 3-(trimethoxysilyl) propylmethacrylate (TMSPM) to fabricate large area photonic crystal. Although the surface modification of silica spheres with TMSPM has been failed for the base catalyst, the second trial using acid catalyst showed the following results. The FTIR absorption peak at $1721cm^{-1}$ representing C=O stretching vibration indicates that the TMSPM was attached on the surface of silica spheres. The methanol solution comprised of the surface modified silica spheres (average diameter of 380 nm) and a photoinitiator was poured in the patterned silicon wafer with the dimension of 10 cm x 10 cm and irradiated UV-light during the self-assembly process. The result showed large area crack and defect free nanostructures.