TY - GEN
T1 - Recovery of valuable and toxic metals from crystalline-Si modules
AU - Huang, Wen Hsi
AU - Shin, Woo Jung
AU - Wang, Laidong
AU - Tao, Meng
N1 - Funding Information:
Financial support for this project is provided in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation under grant no. DMR-1306542.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 IEEE.
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - Valuable and toxic metals including Ag, Pb, Sn and Cu can be recovered from end-of-life Si solar modules. This study presents the recovery of Ag, Pb, Sn and Cu from a simulated leach solution of crystalline-Si modules. 11.4% HNO 3 is used as the leach solution. Ag, Pb, Sn and Cu pellets are dissolved in the solution to simulate the metals from front contacts and soldered wires in Si modules. Sn precipitates in the solution as SnO 2 , which can be separated by filtration or sedimentation. Voltammetry reveals the reduction potentials for Ag and Cu. It is demonstrated that 3-electrode sequential electrowinning can extract Ag and Cu one by one from the solution. The recovery rates of Ag and Cu are 74% and 83%, respectively. Toxic Pb is deposited on the anode as PbO 2 during Cu recovery. The purity of the extracted metals is above 99%.
AB - Valuable and toxic metals including Ag, Pb, Sn and Cu can be recovered from end-of-life Si solar modules. This study presents the recovery of Ag, Pb, Sn and Cu from a simulated leach solution of crystalline-Si modules. 11.4% HNO 3 is used as the leach solution. Ag, Pb, Sn and Cu pellets are dissolved in the solution to simulate the metals from front contacts and soldered wires in Si modules. Sn precipitates in the solution as SnO 2 , which can be separated by filtration or sedimentation. Voltammetry reveals the reduction potentials for Ag and Cu. It is demonstrated that 3-electrode sequential electrowinning can extract Ag and Cu one by one from the solution. The recovery rates of Ag and Cu are 74% and 83%, respectively. Toxic Pb is deposited on the anode as PbO 2 during Cu recovery. The purity of the extracted metals is above 99%.
KW - Crystalline-Si solar cells
KW - Electrowinning
KW - End-of-life Si solar cells
KW - Recycling
KW - Voltammetry
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85048507686&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1109/PVSC.2017.8366856
DO - 10.1109/PVSC.2017.8366856
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85048507686
T3 - 2017 IEEE 44th Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2017
SP - 1
EP - 4
BT - 2017 IEEE 44th Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2017
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 44th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2017
Y2 - 25 June 2017 through 30 June 2017
ER -