The substrate (the metal to be plated) covers itself with a film of adhering gas or oxide that cannot be cleaned away; the plating material is deposited on the film, not on the underlying metal ...

The UNSW researchers used copper plating on the front grid of TOPCon cells to reduce performance losses linked to contaminants. Image: UNSW/Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, CC BY 4.0 ...

Their findings are available in the study “Alleviating contaminant-induced degradation of TOPCon solar cells with copper plating,” published in Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells.