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Boron Removal from Industrial Silicon by Combined Slagging and Acid Leaching Treatment Technology

  • Recycling Silicon and Silicon Compounds
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Abstract

Boron removal is a challenge in the purification of industrial silicon. A new technology for boron removal from silicon using chlorine slag flux refining followed by acid leaching treatment has been investigated and is described herein. The boron in silicon is oxidized by the slag flux and enters into the slag phase. However, some soluble boron remains in the refined silicon, and this can then be further removed by acid leaching treatment. The boron is reduced from 22 parts per million by weight (ppmw) to 1.37 ppmw with removal efficiency of 93.7% through ternary CaO-SiO2-CaCl2 slag flux treatment. After acid leaching treatment, the boron in the refined silicon is further reduced to 0.81 ppmw and the removal efficiency of boron reaches 96.3%. This result shows that this new technology has an obvious role in the further enhancement of boron removal. Using 3 wt.% B-doped silicon alloy as the raw material for purification, the results demonstrate the role of the acid leaching treatment in soluble boron removal from the refined silicon. The oxidization and dissolution behaviors of boron in silicon during the slagging and acid leaching treatment are described and explained.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (51574133, 21563017 and 51104080) and Natural Science Foundation of Yunnan Province in China (2016FA022 and 2014FB124).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The National Engineering Laboratory for Vacuum Metallurgy, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, People’s Republic of China

    Qiang Zhou, Jijun Wu, Wenhui Ma, Yun Lei & Kuixian Wei

  2. Faculty of Metallurgical and Energy Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, People’s Republic of China

    Qiang Zhou, Jijun Wu, Wenhui Ma, Zhengjie Chen & Kuixian Wei

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  1. Qiang Zhou
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  2. Jijun Wu
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  3. Wenhui Ma
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Correspondence to Jijun Wu.

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Zhou, Q., Wu, J., Ma, W. et al. Boron Removal from Industrial Silicon by Combined Slagging and Acid Leaching Treatment Technology. JOM 72, 2670–2675 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-019-03847-4

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