An efficient method combining thermal annealing and acid leaching for impurities removal from silica intended for photovoltaic application

摘要

This work investigates the photothermal treatment of silica sand to reduce impurities to a low level suitable for the production of acceptable solar grade silicon for photovoltaic application. It describes experiment carried out by using a tungsten lamp furnace to purify silica under controlled atmosphere. This process enables to attract impurities to the surface of silica grains where they can be easily extracted by partial dissolution in an acid mixture. Thus obtained silica was investigated by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) method. Major impurities present in silica sand were Al, K, Fe, Na, Ca, Mg and B. Among the new products, almost major impurities were removed effectively. Indeed purity degree, given by characterization of ICP-AES, passes from 99.76 to 99.96% and the average impurity removal efficiency is 83.33%.