The work in this thesis examines the effects of the application of oxide coatings on the performance of the single crystalline silicon photovoltaic solar cells. A variety of potential oxide materials for solar cells performance enhancement are investigated. These films are silicon oxide, titanium oxide and rare earth ion-doped gadolinium oxysulfide phosphor. This study compares the electrical characteristics, optical properties and surface chemical composition of mono-crystalline silicon cells before and after coating. The first study investigates the potential for using single and double layers of silicon oxide films produced by low-temperature Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition (PECVD) using tetramethylsilane as a silicon precursor and potassium permanganate oxidising agent for efficiency enhancement of solar cells at low manufacturing cost. Deposition of the films contributes to the increase of the conversion energy of the solar cells on one hand while the variety of colours obtained in this study can be of great importance for building-integrated photovoltaic application on the other hand. The obtained results demonstrated a relative enhancement of 3% in the conversion efficiency of the crystalline silicon solar cell. In the second study, the effects of using a single layer of titanium oxide and a stack of silicon oxide and titanium oxide on the performance of solar cell are demonstrated. Moreover, this study shows the use of different sputtering configurations and oxidation methods. The experimental results showed a relative enhancement of 1.6% for solar cells coated with a stack of silicon oxide/titanium oxide. In the third study, silicon cells were coated with a luminescent layer consisting of down-converting phosphor, gadolinium oxysulfide doped with erbium and terbium, and a polymeric binder of EVA using doctor-blade screen printing technique. A relative enhancement of 4.45% in the energy conversion efficiency of PV solar cell was achieved. Also, the effects of combining silicon oxide layers together with the luminescent composite are also presented in this study.

Ce travail a pour objectif l’élaboration de surfaces permettant le contrôle de l’adsorption protéique et de l’adhésion cellulaire. Deux axes d’études permettent de répondre à cette problématique : d’une part l’optimisation des conditions de greffage par réaction thiol-ène de chaînes éthylène glycol (OEG ou PEG) comportant une fonction thiol sur une monocouche auto-assemblée de trichlorosilane d’undécényle, d’autre part la caractérisation chimique de surface (mesures d’angle de contact, ellipsométrie, microscopie de fluorescence, infrarouge en réflexion totale atténuée IR-ATR, spectroscopie de photoélectrons induits par rayons X XPS, spectrométrie de masse d’ions secondaires à temps de vol ToF-SIMS) à l’issue de chaque étape de traitement. L’étude méthodologique des conditions de greffage thiol-ène montre la mise au point d’un système bicouche structuré après 1 minute de réaction pour le greffage OEG, 1 heure pour le greffage PEG. Par l’emploi de divers substrats (oxyde de silicium, titane, verre), différentes molécules OEG-thiol ou PEG-thiol (longues de 7 à 220 unités éthyléniques, terminées –méthyle, -carboxyle ou –amine), nous mettons en avant les déclinaisons possibles de cette stratégie. Ces terminaisons chimiques conduisent, au choix, à l’inhibition de l’adsorption protéique ou à l’adsorption de biomolécules, albumine de sérum bovin (BSA) ou fibronectine (Fn), permettant de faire de l’adhésion spécifique. Le contrôle, dans le plan de l’échantillon, des zones exposées à la lumière par photochimie lors du greffage thiol-ène autorise le photopatterning des surfaces permettant la maîtrise de l’adsorption protéique et également de l’adhésion cellulaire à la surface. / The aim of this work is to design surfaces allowing controlling cellular adhesion by the study of protein adsorption and cell adhesion. Two main parts were investigated in order to answer this challenge: on one side the optimization of grafting conditions using the thiol-ene reaction of thiol-terminated ethylene glycol chains (OEG or PEG) on a undecenyltrichlorosilane self-assembled monolayer, on the other side the surface chemical characterization (angle contact measurement, ellipsometry, fluorescence microscopy, attenuated total reflection infrared IR-ATR, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy XPS, Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry ToF-SIMS) after each reaction step. The methodological investigation of thiol-ene grafting conditions exhibits the development of a bilayer structured system after a 1 minute reaction time concerning OEG grafting, 1 hour in case of PEG grafting. By using different substrates (silicon oxide, titanium, glass), different molecules OEG-thiol or PEG-thiol (from 7 to 220 ethylene unit long, methyl-, carboxyl- or amine-terminated), we highlight the range of available versions of this strategy. These chemical extremities lead on demand either to protein adsorption inhibition or to biomolecule adsorption, bovine serum albumin (BSA) or fibronectin (Fn) giving access to specific adhesion.By controlling the light-exposed areas in the sample plan, the photochemistry occurring during the thiol-ene grafting allows to design surface patterning for addressing both protein adsorption and cell adhesion on the sample surface.