Abstract:
The use of solar energy is growing sharply in the past years. The most used material for solar cells is high-purity silicon produced by refining low-purity silicon. With the increasing demand for photovoltaic components, new refining processes have been investigated. Carbon is one of the impurities to be removed and one possible removing technique is based on the settling of silicon carbide particles. Settling tests were carried out at 1,500°C during one and six hours. Results show that differences in settling time do not affect carbon removal significantly and that the carbon contents after settling are still higher than that required by standards for solar grade silicon (43 ppm). Results from this work and from literature show that settling is not a feasible processing step for carbon removal to the level needed for photovoltaic applications.
Reference:
RIBEIRO Tiago Ramos; MARTORANO, Marcelo de Aquino; FERREIRA NETO, João Batista . Remoção de carb ono contido no silício metálico por decantação de carbonetos para produção de silício grau solar. Tecnologia em Metalurgia, Materiais e Mineração, v.10, n.4, p.3035-310, out./rdez., 2013.
The use of solar energy is growing sharply in the past years. The most used material for solar cells is high-purity silicon produced by refining low-purity silicon. With the increasing demand for photovoltaic components, new refining processes have been investigated. Carbon is one of the impurities to be removed and one possible removing technique is based on the settling of silicon carbide particles. Settling tests were carried out at 1,500°C during one and six hours. Results show that differences in settling time do not affect carbon removal significantly and that the carbon contents after settling are still higher than that required by standards for solar grade silicon (43 ppm). Results from this work and from literature show that settling is not a feasible processing step for carbon removal to the level needed for photovoltaic applications.
Reference:
RIBEIRO Tiago Ramos; MARTORANO, Marcelo de Aquino; FERREIRA NETO, João Batista . Remoção de carb ono contido no silício metálico por decantação de carbonetos para produção de silício grau solar. Tecnologia em Metalurgia, Materiais e Mineração, v.10, n.4, p.3035-310, out./rdez., 2013.
