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Identification of the Silica Nanoparticles Appeared in the Slurry Generated during the Sawing Step to Manufacture the Photovoltaic Cells

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Abstract

The great growth of the photovoltaic panels industry generates an important amount of slurry during the sawing step, two techniques are used: metallic wire sawing and diamond wire sawing. The metallic wire sawing slurry can mainly contain particles of pure silicon up to 40% Wt, particles of silicon carbide (SiC) which are used as an abrasive element during sawing, metallic impurities based on iron (Fe) which come from the wire, polyethylene glycol (PEG) which is used as a lubricant. However, the sawing stage determines the cost of producing photovoltaic cells, so its recovery has become a necessity. For this purpose, we are interested to study the chemical behavior of the input elements involved in the composition of the slurry. For that, the pH of the slurry was measured for 7 days during its storage. Then, it was washed with acetone to dissolve the polyethylene glycol and separate the liquid phase from the solid one. Solid phase was dried at 70 °C to obtain a slurry powder. This powder has been characterized by ATR-FTIR spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and the X-ray diffractometer. The liquid phase has been characterized by ATR-FTIR, Raman and TGA analysis. The results confirm the chemical instability of the slurry and the appearance of nanoparticles that have been identified.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by DGRSDT of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MESRS) of Algeria and Centre de Recherche en Technologie des Semi-conducteurs pour l’énergétique (CRTSE). The authors would like to thank BENCHAIB Welid Eddine (EMP), ACHLEF Tarek (EMP) and Amar Mansri (CRTSE) for their cooperation to carry out this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unité d’Enseignement et de Recherche en Chimie Appliquée, Ecole Militaire Polytechnique (EMP), 16111, Bordj El-Bahri, Algiers, Algeria

    Hiba Araibia & Sana Tazibet

  2. Direction de la Recherche Scientifique et Technique, Académie Militaire de Cherchell, BP 48, 42006, Cherchell, Tipaza, Algeria

    Hiba Araibia & Yasmine Izri

  3. Croissance Cristalline des semi-Conducteurs et Procédés Métallurgiques (CCPM-03), Centre de Recherche en Technologie des Semi-conducteurs pour l’Energétique (CRTSE), 02 Bd Frantz Fanon BP140, Alger, 7 merveilles, 16038, Algiers, Algeria

    Nabila Boutouchent-Guerfi & Zahira Boukhemikhem

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  1. Hiba Araibia
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  2. Nabila Boutouchent-Guerfi
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  3. Sana Tazibet
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Correspondence to Nabila Boutouchent-Guerfi.

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Highlights

• Silicon ingot cutting process generates slurry in large quantities that will not be thrown into the environment and not be cremated, and recovering its input elements has become a challenge;

• pH variation of the slurry indicates its chemical instability that should be considered before its treatment;

• Thermal degradation of the PEG during the sawing step generate new elements;

• XRD and Raman spectroscopy confirm presence the silicon dioxide nanoparticles;

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Araibia, H., Boutouchent-Guerfi, N., Tazibet, S. et al. Identification of the Silica Nanoparticles Appeared in the Slurry Generated during the Sawing Step to Manufacture the Photovoltaic Cells. Silicon 13, 2763–2769 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-020-00622-y

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