Eco-friendly Approach of Silicon Recovery from Waste Silicon Photovoltaic Modules and Recycling of Silicon Powder

This paper presents an eco-friendly approach for reducing chemical solutions in the chemical process of recovering silicon from a silicon solar cell separated from a waste solar panel.Methanesulfonic acid or laser ablation was used to remove Ag metal electrodes instead of nitric acid.These processes can reduce the use of chemical acid solutions by 50% in our reference process consisting of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid.The purity of the recovered silicon powder measured by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy was more than 99.99% (4N).The feasibility of anode material for secondary batteries was tested by manufacturing recycled silicon powder and SiC powder using the recovered silicon.When the recovered silicon powder and high-purity silicon powder were mixed with the SiC powder, the initial capacity was 1256 mAh/g.