Experiment Research on Purifying Metallurgical Grade Silicon and Crystal Growth in Directional Solidification

Abstract

The main raw material of solar energy is multi-crystalline silicon. Directional solidification technique is one important technological process of metallurgy purification technology for multi-crystalline silicon. It can purify metallurgical grade silicon by removing metal impurities and control crystal growth at the same time. In experiment, metallurgical grade silicon by acid leaching pre-treatment, was purified by our self-assembled directional solidification furnace. The sample was analyzed by electron-prode micro analysis (EPMA). According to the results, the removal efficiency of Fe and Al is 96.3% and 96.7%, respectively. The removing mechanism of metal impurities and the difference between theory value and experiment value were also discussed. The segregation effect in directional solidification is the reason of removing Fe, but analgesic effects of the segregation effect combined with vacuum volatilization are that of removing Al. When the silicon ingot was cooled down, lengthways section of silicon ingot was cut and etched, crystal growth was studied. The results indicate that columnar crystal growth shows diverging tendency from the bottom to the top of silicon ingots, and solidification interface shape is convex. The reasons may be the nucleation of new crystals on crucible sidewall is very serious and the pulling rate is too high.