What is the difference between monocrystalline and polycrystalline solar panels

　　 Monocrystalline silicon solar cells are mainly made of monocrystalline silicon. Compared with other types of solar cells, monocrystalline silicon cells have the highest conversion efficiency. In the initial stage, monocrystalline silicon solar cells accounted for most of the market share. After 1998, it retreated to polycrystalline silicon and occupied the second place. Due to the shortage of polycrystalline silicon raw materials in recent years, the market share of monocrystalline silicon has increased slightly after 2004. Nowadays, most of the cells seen on the market are monocrystalline silicon. The silicon crystals of monocrystalline silicon solar cells are perfect, and their optical, electrical and mechanical properties are very uniform. The color of the cells is mostly black or dark, which is especially suitable for cutting into small pieces to make small consumer products.

Generally, the four corners of monocrystalline silicon solar cells are rounded. The thickness of monocrystalline silicon solar cells is generally 200uM-350uM thick, and the current production trend is toward ultra-thin and high-efficiency. When making polycrystalline silicon solar cells, the high-purity silicon used as a raw material is not purified into single crystals, but melted. Cast into a square silicon ingot, and then cut into thin slices and perform similar processing like single crystal silicon.
Polycrystalline silicon is easy to identify from its surface. Silicon wafers are composed of a large number of crystal regions of different sizes (crystals on the surface). The generator system is the same as that of single crystals. In the particle group, the photoelectric conversion at the crystal grain interface is easily disturbed, so the conversion efficiency of polycrystalline silicon is relatively low. At the same time, the optical, electrical and mechanical properties of polycrystalline silicon are not as good as monocrystalline silicon solar cells.
The highest efficiency of polycrystalline silicon solar cell laboratory reaches 20.3%, and the commercialized solar cell is generally 10%-16%. Polycrystalline silicon solar cell is a square sheet, which has the highest filling rate when making solar modules, and the product is relatively beautiful. The thickness of polycrystalline silicon solar cells is generally 220uM-300uM thick. Some manufacturers have produced 180uM thick solar cells and are developing thinner to save expensive silicon materials. Multi-chips are square or rectangular at right angles. The four corners of the single crystal are chamfered close to the circle. The single crystal with money-shaped holes in the middle of a component can be seen at a glance.

https://www.toensolar.com/