Hydrofluoric acid eliminated from silicon salvage process
Many current technologies to recycle silicon solar cells involve breaking the silicon wafers upon removal from the panel. Once removed, the wafers are typically stripped of their impurities using hydrofluoric acid. As well as being harmful to the environment, hydrofluoric acid can penetrate deep into human tissue causing severe burns and even death after contact with the skin.
Nochang Park and his colleagues at the Korea Electronics Technology Institute and the Korea Interfacial Science and Engineering Institute have developed a sustainable process to reclaim silicon wafers from old solar panels and used the salvaged silicon to build new solar cells.
This article provides a link to coverage by Chemistry World.
Thanks for using Education in Chemistry. You can view one Education in Chemistry article per month as a visitor.
Registration is open to all teachers and technicians at secondary schools, colleges and teacher training institutions in the UK and Ireland.
Get all this, plus much more:
Already a Teach Chemistry member? Sign in now.
Not eligible for Teach Chemistry? Sign up for a personal account instead, or you can also access all our resources with Royal Society of Chemistry membership.