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Title High Recovery of Selenium from Kesterite-Based Photovoltaic Cells
ID_Doc 27136
Authors Asensio, MP; Abás, E; Pinilla, JL; Laguna, M
Title High Recovery of Selenium from Kesterite-Based Photovoltaic Cells
Year 2020
Published European Journal Of Inorganic Chemistry, 2020.0, 22
DOI 10.1002/ejic.202000261
Abstract The use of photovoltaic cells is constantly increasing and, in particular, a new generation of thin-film photovoltaic (PV) cells is under development. The absorber of these new cells, kesterite (CZT(S)Se), is composed of abundant chemical elements. Nonetheless, the development of the recycling process for these elements is indispensable for circular economy. This research is focused on the recovery of selenium by thermal oxidation and subsequent reduction. Thus, recycling of selenium has been firstly studied on synthetic kesterite and then validated in a real sample of kesterite extracted from glass-based PV cells. The best results were obtained in a vertical tubular furnace at 750 degrees C with an input of 20 mL/min of air. The posterior reduction process of selenium oxide was achieved by ascorbic acid, a common and economic reagent. Real kesterite was extracted from PV cells by thermal treatment at 90 degrees C for 1 hour to remove the encapsulant and ulterior treatment with HCl for the release of kesterite absorber. Optimal conditions from synthetic kesterite were applied to a real sample, recovering more than 90 % of selenium with a purity of 99.4 %.
Author Keywords Selenium; Kesterite; Waste recovery; Photovoltaic cells; Redox chemistry; Circular economy
Index Keywords Index Keywords
Document Type Other
Open Access Open Access
Source Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED)
EID WOS:000539433300001
WoS Category Chemistry, Inorganic & Nuclear
Research Area Chemistry
PDF https://zaguan.unizar.es/record/101604/files/texto_completo.pdf
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