Dr Thong obtained her PhD in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her doctorate project was on the metallicity discrimination of single-walled carbon nanotubes via chemical force microscopy. Prior to her doctorate, she was a leadframe etching process engineer at a semiconductor company. Currently, she is working as a research engineer of the Advanced Materials Technology Centre (AMTC) under the Building Materials and Clean Technology group in Singapore Polytechnic.
Presentation Title
Precious Material Recovery from Silicon Solar Cells
Abstract
Starting with silicon solar cells, we present herein a simple yet efficient method to recycle almost all the components in the cell. Aluminum back surface field layer is first etched by immersion in an acidic mixture. Aluminum chloride (AlCl3) powder is then obtained by filtering the etchant and drying the filtrate. Next, the silver busbars and fingers were leached through rapid complexation with ammonium, after which recovery of metallic silver occurs by a redox reaction. With a high leaching efficiency, and recovery of high purity materials, it is anticipated that the information presented here will benefit the industrial recycling community.