The relatively high cost of the high quality semiconductor materials (typically silicon) and complex conventional techniques for the fabrication of solar cells result in the overall high cost of the commercially available solar cells. Although, research in the field of solar technologies has been going on for a long time, but, utilization of solar energy still remains limited to a very few applications, owing to the high manufacturing costs and lower efficiency. In this work we present a new solar technology based on silicon photovoltaic micro-particles and demonstrate a fabrication technique for such particles. The photovoltaic micro-particles can be manufactured from waste or low grade silicon, thus, keeping the material and manufacturing costs low. Different diffusion techniques have been explored in this work to implement this fabrication process and manufacture the most efficient silicon PV particles. Different sets of silicon PV particles of different sizes have been fabricated, tested, and compared. It has also been demonstrated, how these silicon photovoltaic particles can be used to generate hydrogen from electrolytic solutions. Some future applications have also been proposed, such as, micro-particles based photo-electrochemical hydrogen generation system, self-assembled micro-particle based thin solar cells, and solar spray-paint. Further research in the growth of this technology may give rise to a whole new revolutionary solar cell technology.
","abstract_html":"<p>The relatively high cost of the high quality semiconductor materials (typically silicon) and complex conventional techniques for the fabrication of solar cells result in the overall high cost of the commercially available solar cells. Although, research in the field of solar technologies has been going on for a long time, but, utilization of solar energy still remains limited to a very few applications, owing to the high manufacturing costs and lower efficiency. In this work we present a new solar technology based on silicon photovoltaic micro-particles and demonstrate a fabrication technique for such particles. The photovoltaic micro-particles can be manufactured from waste or low grade silicon, thus, keeping the material and manufacturing costs low. Different diffusion techniques have been explored in this work to implement this fabrication process and manufacture the most efficient silicon PV particles. Different sets of silicon PV particles of different sizes have been fabricated, tested, and compared. It has also been demonstrated, how these silicon photovoltaic particles can be used to generate hydrogen from electrolytic solutions. Some future applications have also been proposed, such as, micro-particles based photo-electrochemical hydrogen generation system, self-assembled micro-particle based thin solar cells, and solar spray-paint. Further research in the growth of this technology may give rise to a whole new revolutionary solar cell technology.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Kala, Siddhartha"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"M.S.","degree_level":"Masters Thesis","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Siavash Pourkamali Anaraki, Ph.D."],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2009,"date_issued":"2009-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2009-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:02:45Z","subjects":["Micro-particles","Photovoltaics","Solar cells","Solar energy","Other Electrical and Computer Engineering","Power and Energy"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/1384","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Siavash Pourkamali Anaraki, Ph.D."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Kala, Siddhartha"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2010-07-31T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Masters Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M.S."]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Micro-particles","Photovoltaics","Solar cells","Solar energy","Other Electrical and Computer Engineering","Power and Energy"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
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"],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/1384"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:rights":["Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
"],"dc:subject":["Micro-particles","Photovoltaics","Solar cells","Solar energy","Other Electrical and Computer Engineering","Power and Energy"],"dc:title":["Fabrication of Silicon Photovoltaic Micro-Particles for Low-Cost Solar Energy Generation"],"thesis:degree_level":["Masters Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["M.S."]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:02:45Z"}