Development of additive-assisted Ag-MACE for multicrystalline black Si solar cells

•An additive was used to deposit silver nanoparticles uniformly on the surface of a silicon wafer.•Low reflectivity was achieved by uniformly nano-textured mc-Si prepared by additive-assisted Ag-MACE.•The black Si had a homogeneous dark appearance, with no bright edges or spots.•An efficiency of 19.51% was achieved for multicrystalline black silicon solar cells.