Electrometallurgy of Silicon

Abstract

Several industrial and government laboratories are of the opinion that solar-cell technology will grown into a billion-dollar industry by the year 2000, especially if oil prices rise again. Of the variety of materials that have been investigated as the major component of photovoltaic systems, silicon appears to have an outstanding advantage. The cost factor is the primary importance in photovoltaic development, since the technology to make silicon cells of acceptable efficiency and life time has existed since the early stage of the space program. Electrometallurgy is one of the low-cost processes for the production of silicon, since it allows direct, single-stage production from some abundant, inexpensive source materials such as silica and fluorosilicates. Among several systems, two are given particular attention, using inorganic baths with SiO2 or K2SiF6 as the source of silicon respectively. Reprints.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1988
Accession Number
ADA205640

Entities

People

  • Gopalakrishna M. Rao

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Chemical Synthesis
  • Chemistry
  • Coatings
  • Efficiency
  • Electrodeposition
  • Electrolysis
  • Energy Consumption
  • Energy Efficiency
  • Fabrication
  • Materials
  • Materials Processing
  • Materials Science
  • Melting Point
  • Solar Cells
  • Solar Energy
  • United States

Fields of Study

  • Materials science

Readers

  • Economics
  • Solar Photovoltaics and Thermoelectric Devices.
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster