Continuous Electrolyte Jet Scanning Enabled Near-Quantitative and High-Purity Silver Recovery from Silicon Solar Cells
Wending Gu, David Payne, Shujuan Huang, Binesh Puthen Veettil
TL;DR
A new method called EJSC efficiently and sustainably recovers high-purity silver from old solar cells, offering a scalable solution for recycling and reducing environmental impact.
Contribution
EJSC introduces a selective, rapid, and sustainable silver recovery method with high efficiency and purity for silicon solar cell recycling.
Findings
EJSC achieves 97.1% silver extraction in 4 minutes from a 4 cm² cell area under mild conditions.
Recovered silver reaches 3N-level purity (99.88%) and can be used as functional fillers in electronics.
EJSC shows strong industrial feasibility with over 91% silver yield across six repeated treatments.
Abstract
The accelerating retirement of end-of-life silicon solar cells (EoL-SSCs) is creating a rapidly expanding reservoir of secondary Ag, a critical yet finite resource, underscoring the urgent need for sustainable, high-efficiency recovery within a circular-economy framework. Conventional recycling routes are hindered by nonselective reactions, energy-intensive operations, and mass-transport bottlenecks. Here, we report a “top-down” electrolyte jet scanning (EJSC) strategy that enables selective, rapid Ag recovery while preserving the structural and functional integrity of the photovoltaic (PV) substrate. Tunable control of the interelectrode gap (IEG) and coordinated nozzle motion confines the reaction to a continuously refreshed microzone, allowing efficient and near-quantitative Ag extraction (97.1% in 4 min) from a 4 cm2 cell area under mild conditions (2 V, 12 wt % HNO3). Continuous…
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Taxonomy
TopicsPhotovoltaic Systems and Sustainability · Extraction and Separation Processes · Silicon and Solar Cell Technologies