Separation of Si and SiC from Photovoltaic Industry Waste. Recycling of SiC in Production of Cu2O-SiC Powder

摘要： Silicon ingot cutting process generates slurry waste which mainly contains lubricant oil, silicon and silicon carbide particles. In this study, slurry waste was the subject of a primary decantation which served to obtain two different effluents namely dark sludge (DS) and dark liquid (DL). Deoiling treatment of DS and DL using acetone was carried out. The resulting powders were first leached by nitric acid to remove heavy metals and then washed by distilled water to separate Si and SiC. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled to energy dispersive x-ray spectrometry (EDXS) and x-ray diffraction (XRD) show a successful separation of Si and SiC particles. As reuse of SiC-rich powder, a Cu2O-SiC composite was synthesized by electroless plating process under experimental controlled parameters.