Effects and function mechanism of Fe‐containing additives on SiC synthesis with silicon cutting waste

Abstract With the rapid development of the photovoltaic industry, a great amount of silicon cutting waste (SCW) are being generated, which lead to a heavy environmental burden as well as a high cost of the photovoltaic industry. In this paper, the effects of Fe‐containing additives and their function mechanism on recycling SCW to synthesize high‐purity SiC were studied. The results show that Fe‐containing additives, including Fe, Fe 2 O 3 , and Fe(NO 3 ) 3 , have obvious effect on recycling SCW to synthesize SiC. And Fe(NO 3 ) 3 additive achieves the best effect. Fe(NO 3 ) 3 can effectively destroy the SiO 2 film wrapped on the Si particles, so that expose the inner Si to C at lower temperatures than that of the reaction between C and SiO 2 . Besides, Fe(NO 3 ) 3 additive can effectively reduce the activation energy both for Si and C reactions and SiO 2 and C reactions, and contribute to the transport of the raw materials as well as the dissolution and precipitation of Si and C due to the formation of the FeSi melt at low temperatures. The optimal processing conditions are determined as Fe(NO 3 ) 3 addition of 1–3 wt.% and smelting temperature of 1200–1300℃.