Solar cells from upgraded metallurgical grade (UMG) and plasma-purified UMG multi-crystalline silicon substrates

Wolf, Stefaan De; Szlufcik, Jozef; Delannoy, Yves; Perichaud, I.; Hässler, C; Einhaus, Roland

doi:10.1016/s0927-0248(01)00149-0

Cited by 44 publications

(19 citation statements)

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“…During plasma treatment, Si chips were melted in a cold crucible with an induction field (Figure 1). There were no defects in the Si ingot, and no Cu contamination was detected in any of the fabricated specimens based on ICP-OES analysis (data not shown), suggesting that the EMCC method is a powerful method for melting and refining Si compared with other commercial methods such as vacuum arc, plasma arc, and electron beam melting [2,25,28,29]. Figure 3a shows the B contents in the refined Si and the removal fraction of B evaluated by ICP-OES.…”

Section: Experimental Studymentioning

confidence: 95%

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Novel Recycling Method for Boron Removal from Silicon by Thermal Plasma Treatment Coupled with Steam and Hydrogen Gases

Baek

Lee

Min

et al. 2017

Metals

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Boron (B) separation from photovoltaic silicon (Si) remains a research challenge in the recycling field. In this study, a novel B-removal process was developed using thermal plasma treatment coupled with steam and hydrogen gases. Experiments were performed on artificially B-doped Si using various plasma conditions of mixed argon (Ar)/steam/hydrogen gases and varied refining time. The B concentration in all of the samples decreased with increasing refining time. The use of the plasma mixed with Ar/steam/hydrogen gases resulted in a significant improvement of the efficiency of B removal compared with the Ar/steam plasma refining. In addition, with increasing steam content in the plasma with mixed Ar/steam/hydrogen gases, the B-removal rates increased.

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Section: Experimental Studymentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Recently, sustainable energy has attracted considerable attention, and solar energy, one type of sustainable energy, has been widely studied and applied in various applications [1,2]. Photovoltaics (PVs) are generally used to convert solar energy into electricity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Novel Recycling Method for Boron Removal from Silicon by Thermal Plasma Treatment Coupled with Steam and Hydrogen Gases

Baek

Lee

Min

et al. 2017

Metals

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“…Only several binary and ternary compounds or solid solutions were found [8][9][10][11]. Chartrand [12] studied the binding energy between B and other elements such as Si, Fe or Al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prediction of Covalent Interactions Between Si and B, Fe, Al or Ca in Metallurgical Grade Silicon Using ab initio Molecular Dynamic Simulations

Chen

et al. 2014

Silicon

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Boron removal from metallurgical grade silicon (MG-Si) by metallurgical process plays an important role in the production of solar grade silicon (SoG-Si). However, the effects of other impurities in MG-Si on boron removal are not yet well known. The covalent interactions between Si and B, Fe, Al or Ca in the corresponding binary and ternary structures at 1873 K are studied in present work by ab initio molecular dynamic simulations based on the Si supercell and the Si-B structure, respectively. The bond lengths of Si-B, Si-Fe, Si-Al and Si-Ca and the partial density of states (PDOS) of electric charge distribution in the binary structures indicate that the impurities Fe and Ca in MG-Si have an important effect on boron removal. The bond strength order is Si-Fe >Si-Ca >Si-B >Si-Al in the binary Si-B, Si-Fe, Si-Al and Si-Ca structures and the order of effect for impurities Fe, Al or Ca in MG-Si on boron removal is Fe >Ca >Al in the ternary Si-B-Fe, Si-B-Al and Si-B-Ca structures.The results indicate that the metallic impurities should be firstly removed prior to the boron removal for the metallurgical process.

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“…[62][63][64] However, the high cost (> $1/W) of solar-grade Si solar cells has hindered their immediate adoption in the commercial market. [65][66][67] Currently, two major approaches have been pursued to reduce the cost of Si-based solar cells per watt: the adoption of low-cost Si such as metallurgical-grade (MG) 65,67 or upgraded MG (UMG) Si 68,69 and reducing the usage of Si material by preparing ultrathin solar modules. [70][71][72] UMG-Si is generally prepared by the chemical refining of raw Si, 73 and it costs ~$10 per kg, which makes it almost 5 -10 times less expensive than solar-grade Si.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…there must be significant progress in lowering the solar cell module costs and the balance of system costs [65][66][67] . These costs in turn are dominated by the costs of the silicon raw material 70,71,94 , silicon purification 65,[67][68][69] , as well as, the installation of the completed solar cell module 70,94 . In this work we attempt to meet these challenges by i) reducing the amount of silicon material used by producing ultrathin (t ~ 10 µm) solar cells, ii) adopting relatively impure, low-cost substrates in the form of upgraded metallurgical-grade (UMG) silicon, and iii) developing flexible solar cells to lower installation costs.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Polymer-based and Polymer-templated Nanostructured Thermoelectric Devices

Tuteja¹

2014

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Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to a penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number. In this work, we developed a simple, single-step technique, based on electrospinning microbeads onto textured surfaces, to develop re-entrant, hierarchically structured, superoleophobic surfaces. We also demonstrated that we could tune the contact angle hysteresis on these hierarchical surfaces by systematically varying the inter-feature spacing for both the coarser length scale and the finer length scale features. The low surface energy and the significantly reduced solid-liquid contact area allow our hierarchically structured surfaces to exhibit ultra-low contact angle hysteresis even for extremely low surface tension liquids such as n-heptane (with θ oil < 90°). This ultra-low contact angle hysteresis allows, for the first time, droplets of essentially any contacting liquid, including n-heptane, to easily roll-off (roll-off angles ω ≤ 2°) and bounce on our surfaces. This result was particularly interesting given that the materials used to fabricate the superoleophobic surfaces are inherently oleophilic. Polymer-based and Polymer-templated Nanostructured Thermoelectric DevicesFinal Report, Anish Tuteja, University of Michigan 4 Advancing and receding apparent contact angles for various liquids on a hierarchically structured surface, as well as, on surfaces with the coarser length scale texture only and on surfaces with the finer length scale texture only. The receding contact angle legends are not visible for the hierarchically structured surfaces because of the ultra-low contact angle hysteresis. D) and e) SEM images showing the vicinity of the contact line along the coarser length scale texture and the finer length scale texture, respectively, of the hierarchically structured surface. The distortions in the contact line are evidence of air trapped at both the length scales. F) Roll-off angles of various liquids on the hierarchically structured surface. The inset shows a n-heptane droplet rolling on a hierarchical surface at a roll-off angle ω = 3°. Journal Impact Factor: 13.734 Times Cited: 13Summary: Superhydrophobic surfaces display apparent contact angles greater than 150° and low contact angle hysteresis with water, while superoleophobic surfaces display apparent contact

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Solar cells from upgraded metallurgical grade (UMG) and plasma-purified UMG multi-crystalline silicon substrates

Cited by 44 publications

References 2 publications

Novel Recycling Method for Boron Removal from Silicon by Thermal Plasma Treatment Coupled with Steam and Hydrogen Gases

Novel Recycling Method for Boron Removal from Silicon by Thermal Plasma Treatment Coupled with Steam and Hydrogen Gases

Prediction of Covalent Interactions Between Si and B, Fe, Al or Ca in Metallurgical Grade Silicon Using ab initio Molecular Dynamic Simulations

Polymer-based and Polymer-templated Nanostructured Thermoelectric Devices

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