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Inclusions Removal in Industrial Silicon by SiO2-CaO-Al2O3 Based Slag System

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Abstract

The existence of inclusions in industrial silicon seriously affects the conversion efficiency of organic silicon monomer synthesis, making it difficult to meet the requirements of polycrystalline silicon production for raw materials. In this work, the basic slag system SiO2-CaO-Al2O3 was used to remove inclusions in industrial silicon. The microstructure and chemical composition of metal inclusions formed by the main metal impurities in industrial silicon were considered, and the physical and chemical behavior and evolution process of inclusions in industrial silicon before and after refining were analyzed. The effect of the CaO/SiO2 ratio on the removal of inclusions was examined. It was found that when CaO/SiO2 = 0.38, the removal effect of metal inclusions in industrial silicon was the best; the removal rates of Fe, Al, Ca, and Ti reached 27.1%, 68.7%, 25.1% and 99.1%, respectively. This study provides an idea for industrial silicon refining technology and high-quality industrial silicon product development.

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Data Availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support on this research from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22078140), the Talent Training Program of Yunnan of China (202005AC160041 and KKXY202252002), and Key Science and Technology Specific Projects of Yunnan Province (202202AG050012).

Funding

The authors are grateful for financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22078140), the Talent Training Program of Yunnan of China (202005AC160041 and KKXY202252002) and Key Science and Technology Specific Projects of Yunnan Province (202202AG050012).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Metallurgical and Energy Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, People’s Republic of China

    Zuhan Shan, Jijun Wu, Kuixian Wei & Wenhui Ma

  2. Yunnan Yongchang Silicon Industry Co., Ltd., Baoshan, Yunnan, 678300, People’s Republic of China

    Jianhua Wen, Guiming Yang & Fuchang Xu

  3. National Engineering Research Center for Vacuum Metallurgy, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, People’s Republic of China

    Jijun Wu, Kuixian Wei & Wenhui Ma

Authors
  1. Zuhan Shan
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  2. Jianhua Wen
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  3. Guiming Yang
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  4. Fuchang Xu
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  5. Jijun Wu
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  6. Kuixian Wei
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  7. Wenhui Ma
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Contributions

Zuhan Shan: Experiment development, Data Integration, Writing—original draft. Jianhua Wen: Provision of study materials, reagents, computing resources. Guiming Yang: Visualization of experimental results. Fuchang Xu: Validation, Software. Jijun Wu: Funding acquisition, Project administration. Kuixian Wei: Data curation, Supervision. Wenhui Ma: Conceptualization, Provide ideas.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jijun Wu or Kuixian Wei.

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Shan, Z., Wen, J., Yang, G. et al. Inclusions Removal in Industrial Silicon by SiO2-CaO-Al2O3 Based Slag System. Silicon 15, 4889–4896 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-023-02404-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-023-02404-8

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