An electric wire conductor is excellent in space saving and flexibility and is less likely to concentrate a load on specific elemental wires, and a covered electric wire and a wire harness contain the electric wire conductor. The electric wire conductor contains a wire strand containing a plurality of elemental wires twisted together. The wire strand has a sector-shaped part in which a cross-section intersecting an axial direction of the wire strand contains either a single edge or two edges touching each other at an apex, and an outward curve connecting the ends of the single edge or the two edges. In the sector-shaped part, the elemental wires having deformation ratios from a circle lower at an outer peripheral part facing an outer periphery of the sector-shaped part than at a center part of the sector-shaped part located inside the outer peripheral part in the cross-section intersecting the axial direction.

A busbar that includes a low profile, flexible body made of aluminum layers stacked together on their longitudinal surfaces. The aluminum layers are laser welded together and are designed to have an offset at a middle portion such that the middle portion has a raised profile. A method of laser welding the aluminum layers is also disclosed.

Provided is an aluminum member for electrodes capable of stably maintaining a low electric resistance state, and a method of producing an aluminum member for electrodes. An aluminum member for electrodes includes an aluminum substrate and an oxide film that is laminated on at least one main surface of the aluminum substrate, and the oxide film has a density of 2.7 to 4.1 g/cm.sup.3 and a thickness of 5 nm or less.

An aluminum alloy conductive wire that includes 0.15 mass % or more and 0.25 mass % or less of Si; 0.6 mass % or more and 0.9 mass % or less of Fe; 0.05 mass % or more and 0.15 mass % or less of Cu; 0.2 mass % or more and 2.7 mass % or less of Mg, and 0.03 mass % or less in total of Ti, V, and B. The aluminum alloy conductive wire has tensile strength of equal to or less than T.sub.1 MPa represented by T.sub.1=59.5 ln(x)+231 and conductivity of equal to or more than C % IACS represented by C=1.26x.sup.2−11.6x+63.4 in a case where a content rate of Mg in the aluminum alloy conductive wire is x mass %.

An aluminum alloy wire composed of an aluminum alloy, wherein the aluminum alloy contains more than or equal to 0.03 mass % and less than or equal to 1.5 mass % of Mg, more than or equal to 0.02 mass % and less than or equal to 2.0 mass % of Si, and a remainder of Al and an inevitable impurity, Mg/Si being more than or equal to 0.5 and less than or equal to 3.5 in mass ratio, and the aluminum alloy wire has a dynamic friction coefficient of less than or equal to 0.8.

A glass powder for N-type silver-aluminum paste comprises a lead-containing compound, a silicon-containing compound, a thallium-containing compound and a zinc-containing compound, wherein the compounding of the thallium-containing compound and the lead-containing compound confers good silver melting capability on the glass powder, and the prepared silver-aluminum paste has good wettability to the surface of a solar cell silicon wafer; the silicon-containing compound provides a more complete network structure for the glass powder; and the zinc-containing compound reduces the softening temperature of the glass powder and further reduces the sintering temperature of the prepared N-type silver-aluminum paste; further comprises a compound containing a first main group metal element, and the compound can react with a zinc-containing compound to further reduce the softening temperature of the glass powder, further reduce the sintering temperature of the prepared N-type silver-aluminum paste and improve the preparation yield of the N-type solar cell.

An aluminum wire rod has a composition which contains 3.00% by mass or less of Fe and 0.20% by mass or less of Si, and additionally contains a total of from 0.010% by mass to 0.500% by mass of one or more elements selected from the group consisting of Cu, Mn, Mg, Zn, Ti, B, V and Ni, with the balance being made up of Al and unavoidable impurities. With respect to this aluminum wire rod, in a 25 .Math.m × 60 .Math.m region in a cross-section that is perpendicular to the longitudinal direction, the total length of the portions where the crystal misorientation with respect to an adjacent crystal grain is more than 1° but not more than 15° is from 0.6 mm to 4.8 mm; and the electrical conductivity is 55% IACS or more.

An object of the present invention is to provide, at a low cost, a solar cell having high conversion efficiency. A solar cell according to the present invention is characterized by including a passivation film that protects a semiconductor substrate, a first finger electrode connected to the semiconductor substrate on a main surface of the semiconductor substrate, a first bus bar electrode that intersects the first finger electrode, and an intermediate layer provided in an intersecting position of the first finger electrode and the first bus bar electrode. The solar cell is characterized in that the first finger electrode and the first bus bar electrode are electrically connected to each other via the intermediate layer.

An aluminum alloy contains equal to or more than 0.005 mass % and equal to or less than 2.2 mass % of Fe, and a remainder of Al and an inevitable impurity. In a transverse section of the aluminum alloy wire, a surface-layer void measurement region in a shape of a rectangle having a short side length of 30 μm and a long side length of 50 μm is defined within a surface layer region extending from a surface of the aluminum alloy wire by 30 μm in a depth direction, and a total cross-sectional area of voids in the surface-layer void measurement region is equal to or less than 2 μm.sup.2.

A catalyst-free synthesis method for the formation of a metalorganic compound comprising a desired (first) metal may include, for example, selecting another (second) metal and an organic solvent, with the second metal being selected to (i) be more reactive with respect to the organic solvent than the first metal and (ii) form, upon exposure of the second metal to the organic solvent, a reaction by-product that is more soluble in the organic solvent than the metalorganic compound. An alloy comprising the first metal and the second metal may be first produced (e.g., formed or otherwise obtained) and then treated with the organic solvent in a liquid phase or a vapor phase to form a mixture comprising (i) the reaction by-product comprising the second metal and (ii) the metalorganic compound comprising the first metal. The metalorganic compound may then be separated from the mixture in the form of a solid.