Reusable thermally conductive Sn-CNTs infused PVA gel for efficient silicon solar cell module cooling

Effective thermal cooling is vital for conventional Silicon (Si) solar cells to mitigate heat buildup and dissipation losses, ultimately enhancing the lifetime and device performance. Developing an eco-friendly cooling solution that preserves power conversion efficiency (PCE), avoids carbon emissions, and enables seamless integration remains a critical challenge. To address this issue, conducting gels have emerged as a promising solution due to their simple structure and compatibility with existing systems, offering potential to lower temperatures, boost power output, and improve durability. However, low thermal conductivity of these gels limits the overall heat dissipation. This work introduces an efficient conducting gel comprising polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) blended with thermally conductive Sn-coated and filled carbon nanotubes (Sn-CNTs) for superior passive cooling. The optimized PVA/Sn-CNT conducting gel exhibited excellent thermal conductivity of 3.2 W/mK. Si solar cell module covered with conducting gel on the bottom side exhibited a significant temperature reduction of 9.5 °C, yielding a PCE of 13.2% under xenon lamp-based one-sun irradiation. Interestingly, the gel used for 40 days was reusable after soaking in DI water and demonstrating an excellent PCE of 13.3% with a superior temperature reduction of 13.2 °C, reflecting an effective reusability of the gel. Overall, this method offers a green, affordable pathway to boost solar efficiency, lifetime, and thermal control using sustainable materials.