Ca-Si Alloy Addition Followed by Acid Leaching as a Route to Solar-Grade Silicon

Abstract

In present, refining of metallurgical grade silicon is one of the promising routes to low-cost solar grade silicon for solar cells. Alloying with Ca has shown a great potential as efficient refining method of MG-Si in combination with acid leaching. Compared with Ca metal, Ca-Si alloy is cheaper and more secure. Great removal of impurity depends on microstructure of MG-Si after alloyed with Ca-Si alloy. In the work, the change of impurity phase which was performed by the change of the microstructure of MG-Si before and after alloyed with Ca-Si alloy has been analyzed. It was determined that CaSi2phase contained significant phosphorus content after alloying with Ca-Si alloy, It also investigated the optimal acid leaching condition after leaching, which confirmed that metallurgical grade silicon with Ca-Si alloy addition followed by acid leaching could be a potential route to remove phosphorus from MG-Si.