In Search of an Alternative Solar Grade Silicon Production By Electrochemical Reduction of SiO2

2016-05-29
Akpınar, Bengisu
Erdoğan, Metehan
Karakaya, İshak
Silicon plays an important role in fabrication of solar cells and solar chips. Metallurgical grade silicon (98 to 99 % Si) demands further purification such as zone refining [1, 2], metallothermic reduction [3] and Siemens process [4] to convert it to solar grade. A promising method, based on direct electrochemical reduction of oxides by FFC Cambridge Process [5], was adopted to form silicon from porous SiO2 pellets in molten CaCl2 and CaCl2–NaCl salt mixture [6]. The contamination of silicon powder by iron and nickel originating from stainless steel cathode was reported to disqualify the product from solar applications. SiO2 pellets, sintered at 1300oC for 4 hours, were sandwiched between pure silicon wafer plates to minimize contamination of silicon. The promising results indicated a potential alternative method of direct solar grade silicon production for expanding solar energy industry.
229th ECS Meeting (29 Mayıs - 02 Haziran 2016)

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Citation Formats
B. Akpınar, M. Erdoğan, and İ. Karakaya, “In Search of an Alternative Solar Grade Silicon Production By Electrochemical Reduction of SiO2,” presented at the 229th ECS Meeting (29 Mayıs - 02 Haziran 2016), San Diego, CA, USA, 2016, Accessed: 00, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/77945.