Recovery of Valuable Materials from Waste Heterojunction Solar Cells: Focus on the Purification of Indium

作     者：Ming, Liu Lei, Wang Xinyue, Cao Jie, Fan Zhen, Zhang Peng, Quan Shitao, Wang 

作者机构：College of Smart Energy Shanghai Jiaotong University Shanghai200240 China The College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Hohai University Changzhou213022 China State Key Laboratory of Photovoltaic Science and Technology Changzhou Trina Solar Co. Ltd. Changzhou213031 China Harbin Institute of Technology Department of Control Science and Engineering Harbin150001 China 

出 版 物：《SSRN》 

年 卷 期：2023年

核心收录：

主　　题：Silver 

摘      要：The increased manufacturing of silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells/panels has generated a significant rise in production waste, which contains valuable materials like indium, silver and silicon. With a high demand for these raw materials, the recovery of waste solar cells has become a crucial undertaking. While various methodologies have been explored for recycling crystalline silicon cells and leading to significant benefits through the recovery of valuable materials, a comprehensive and validated recovery process for SHJ solar cells is still lacking. This paper investigates the potential use of benign hydrometallurgical conditions for recovering valuable materials and maximizing the resource purification of metal indium from production waste SHJ cells. The results demonstrate that complete recovery of silver grids can be achieved through 10% NaOH etching at 90 ℃ for 10 min due to their low adhesion properties with the transparent conductive oxide layer. Furthermore, optimal chemical treatment conditions were adjusted to achieve efficient leaching recovery of indium. Consequently, an indium concentration of 6231.75 mg/L was obtained through the solvent extraction-stripping process, representing a 24-fold increase compared to the initial leachate concentration. Finally, a substitution reaction involving aluminum for 12 h proved promising for achieving higher indium purity and an approximated cost analysis was performed. © 2023, The Authors. All rights reserved.