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Simple and High-Effective Purification of Metallurgical-Grade Silicon Through Cu-Catalyzed Chemical Leaching

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Abstract

A simple and effective method for the removal of impurities from large-sized particle metallurgical-grade silicon (MG-Si) powders based on Cu-catalyzed chemical leaching (CuCCL) has been proposed and discussed. The leaching behaviors of the main metallic impurities (Fe, Al, Ca, Ti, Ni, V and Cu) were investigated using various leaching approaches. The typical precipitates at Si grain boundaries before and after leaching were observed and analyzed by scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy. The leaching results show that the order of impurity removal efficiency, from highest to lowest, is CuCCL > HF-H2O2 leaching > HF leaching. After CuCCL, the total metal impurity concentration can be reduced from 6759 ppmw to 193.41 ppmw. The numerous micro-scale “channels” introduced by CuCCL are beneficial for the removal of impurities, especially for the non-dissolving metal impurities, such as calcium and aluminum. The results indicated that CuCCL is promising as an industrial purification method to produce solar-grade silicon.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support of this work came from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51504117, 61764009), Yunnan Youth Fund Project (2016FD037) and Talent Development Program of KUST(KKSY201563032), and the Program for Innovative Research Team in University of Ministry of Education of China (No. IRT_17R48).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Complex Nonferrous Metal Resources Clean Utilization, Faculty of Metallurgical and Energy Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, China

    Fengshuo Xi, Shaoyuan Li, Wenhui Ma, Zudong He, Chao Geng, Zhengjie Chen, Kuixian Wei, Yun Lei & Keqiang Xie

  2. Institute of New Energy/Silicon Metallurgy and Silicon Material Engineering Research Center of Universities in Yunnan Province, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, China

    Fengshuo Xi, Shaoyuan Li, Wenhui Ma, Zudong He, Chao Geng, Zhengjie Chen, Kuixian Wei, Yun Lei & Keqiang Xie

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  1. Fengshuo Xi
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  2. Shaoyuan Li
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  3. Wenhui Ma
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  4. Zudong He
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Correspondence to Shaoyuan Li.

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Xi, F., Li, S., Ma, W. et al. Simple and High-Effective Purification of Metallurgical-Grade Silicon Through Cu-Catalyzed Chemical Leaching. JOM 70, 2041–2047 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-018-3058-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-018-3058-y

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