A novel approach for recycling of kerf loss silicon from cutting slurry waste for solar cell applications

A great challenge in recycling of silicon cutting kerf loss is the complete removal of silicon carbide particles. High-gravity centrifugation using a heavy medium with a specific gravity in between that of silicon carbide and silicon is not effective for the submicron particles. In this paper, a novel recycling process for obtaining silicon from the kerf loss powders is reported. The obtained silicon after directional solidification was found to be of solar grade. The average lifetime and resistivity of grown crystal were measured to be 1.02 mu s and 0.7 Omega cm, respectively, which were close to the original sawing silicon and casted pure Si ingots. The energy conversion efficiencies of the solar cells fabricated from the recycled and pure silicon were found comparable. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.