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An Economical Approach for the Recycling of High-Purity Silicon from Diamond-Wire Saw Kerf Slurry Waste

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Abstract

Large amounts of solar-grade silicon were wasted as silicon powder waste (SPW) during the diamond-wire saw slicing process. In this paper, the SPW was purified by acid leaching, and the purified SPW was pelletized. Then the pellets were melted in induction furnace in air atmosphere to produce high-purity silicon ingots. Firstly, the SPW as raw material was characterized. The results show that the particle size of the powder is mainly in the range of 0.14\(\sim \)8.71 μm, the powder has a shape of thin flake, the contents of SPW are Si 83.99 wt%, silicon oxide 13.5 wt%, others 2.51 wt%, of which B (boron) 0.2 ppmw, P (phosphorus) 4.32 ppmw, and metallic impurities 16412 ppmw, respectively. Secondly, the SPW was purified by acid leaching and the leaching parameters were optimized, i.e. leaching time 80 min, temperature 60°, acid concentration 25%, liquid-solid ratio 10 mL/g and agitation speed 200 rpm. Thirdly, the purified SPW was pelletized and then melted in induction furnace in air atmosphere. High-purity silicon ingots with Si 99.99%, B 0.16 ppmw and P 1.1 ppmw were produced. The slag mainly consists of 48.63 wt% Si, 43.51 wt% SiO2 and 7.86 wt% SiC. The high-purity silicon ingots can be used to produce aluminum silicon alloy and silicon nitride. And it is prospective to use the high-purity silicon ingots as the feedstock to produce solar grade silicon (SoG-Si).

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the State Key Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.51334004), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.51074043) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central University (Grant No.N120409004).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Metallurgy, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110819, People’s Republic of China

    Jian Kong, Pengfei Xing, Yang Liu, Jingqiang Wang, Xing Jin & Zhongbao Feng

  2. Department of Material Science and Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, People’s Republic of China

    Xuetao Luo

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  1. Jian Kong
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  2. Pengfei Xing
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  3. Yang Liu
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  4. Jingqiang Wang
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  7. Xuetao Luo
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Correspondence to Pengfei Xing.

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Kong, J., Xing, P., Liu, Y. et al. An Economical Approach for the Recycling of High-Purity Silicon from Diamond-Wire Saw Kerf Slurry Waste. Silicon 11, 367–376 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-018-9889-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-018-9889-x

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