Effect of capillary adhesion on fracture of photovoltaic silicon wafers during diamond wire slicing

•A hierarchical capillary adhesion model of wafers during diamond wire slicing is presented.•Capillary adhesion has a greater effect on the large and thin wafers slicing with a fine wire.•Capillary adhesion significantly increases the risk of wafer fracture for thickness below 100 μm.•As wafer thickness decreases to 50 μm, the 210 × 210 mm2 mono-Si wafer fracture probability caused by capillary adhesion increases to more than 6%.