• Resources Recycling
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.60-68
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• 2012

Silicon wafer for making semiconductor devices and solar cell is used in the semiconductor and solar industry, respectively. Silicon wafer is produced by cutting with silicon ingot and sludge contains silicon occurs from cutting process. Generation of silicon sludge is increasing on developing all industry sectors which have need of semiconductor device. These days it has been widely studied for the recycling technologies of the silicon sludge from view points of economy and efficiency. In this paper, patents and paper on the recycling technologies of the silicon sludge were analyzed. The range of search was limited in the open patents of USA (US), European Union (EU), Japan (JP), Korea (KR) and SCI journals from 1982 to 2011. Patents and journals were collected using key-words searching and filtered by filtering criteria. The trends of the patents and journals was analyzed by the years, countries, companies, and technologies.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.66-76
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• 2008

Silicon wafer is used in making semiconductor device of various forms in the semiconductor industry. Silicon wafer is produced by cutting silicon ingot and sludge containing silicon results from cutting process. The amount of silicon sludge is increasing owing to the usage of semiconductor device in many industry sectors. These days the recycling technologies of the waste silicon sludge has been widely studied from view point of economy and efficiency. In this study, patents on the recycling technologies of the waste silicon sludge were analyzed. The range of search was limited in the open patents of USA, European Union, Japan, and Korea up to september, 2007. Patents were collected using key-words and filtered by filtering criteria. The trend of the patents was analyzed by the years, countries, companies, and technologies.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.43-48
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• 2016

Waste SiC powders obtained from silicon wafer sludge have very low density and a narrow particle size distribution of $10-20{\mu}m$. A scarce yield of C and Si is expected when SiC powders are incorporated into the Fe melt without briquetting. Here, the briquetting variables of the SiC powders are studied as a function of the sintering temperature, pressure, and type and contents of the binders to improve the yield. It is experimentally confirmed that Si and C from the sintered briquette can be incorporated effectively into the Fe melt when the waste SiC powders milled for 30 min with 20 wt.% Fe binder are sintered at $1100^{\circ}C$ upon compaction using a pressure of 250 MPa. XRF-WDS analysis shows that an yield of about 90% is obtained when the SiC briquette is kept in the Fe melt at $1650^{\circ}C$ for more than 1 h.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.60-65
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• 2022

This study presents the carburization process for recycling sludge, which was formed during silicon wafer machining. The sludge used in the carburization process is a mixture of silicon and silicon carbide (SiC) with iron as an impurity, which originates from the machine. Additionally, the sludge contains cutting oil, a fluid with high viscosity. Therefore, the sludge was dried before carburization to remove organic matter. The dried sludge was washed by acid cleaning to remove the iron impurity and subsequently carburized by heat treatment under vacuum to form the SiC powder. The ratio of silicon to SiC in the sludge was varied depending on the sources and thus carbon content was adjusted by the ratio. With increasing SiC content, the carbon content required for SiC formation increased. It was demonstrated that substoichiometric SiC_x (x<1) was easily formed when the carbon content was insufficient. Therefore, excess carbon is required to obtain a pure SiC phase. Moreover, size reduction by high-energy milling had a beneficial effect on the suppression of SiC_x, forming the pure SiC phase.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2012

This paper explained about the sludge recycling system which retrieved the silicon and abrasive from solar cell wafer slicing. The basic process of the recycling system was multiple centrifuge and secondary processes of ultra sonic agitation, addition of alcohol-water solution and heating sludge was added for raising separation efficiency. The recycling rate was about 96% and 94% for 2N, 4N silicon respectively. The SiC abrasive recycling rate was about 80%. To retrieve the high purity of 4N silicon, the heat process in vacuum furnace was added to remove remaining impurity components.

• Clean Technology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.274-280
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• 2016

In this study, it was to develop a chemical method that can recycle the cutting oil which accounts for about 25% of the cost of the process among containing materials of silicon waste sludge generated in the process for producing a solar cell wafer. The 7 types of reagents have been used, including acetone, HCl, NaOH, KOH, $Na_2CO_3$, HF, $CH_2Cl_2$, etc. for this experiment. And It was carried out at a speed of 3000 rpm for 60 minutes centrifugation after performing a reaction with a waste sludge at various concentrations. As a result, the best reagents and conditions for separating the solid such as a silicon powder and a metal powder and liquid cutting oil were identified as 0.3 N NaOH. It is found to be pH 6.05 in a post-processing recycled cutting oil with 0.3 N NaOH after reaction of waste sludge and 0.1 N HCl which is effective to remove metal powder in order to adjust the pH to suit the properties of the weak acid is a commercially available cutting oil and it showed excellent turbidity than when applied to sludge with 0.3 N NaOH alone. The results of FT-IR analysis which can compare the properties of the commercially available cutting oil shows it has a possibility of recycling oil. The cutting oil recovery rate obtained through the experiment was found to be 86.9%.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.34 no.7
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• pp.370-376
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• 2024

In this study, we report significant improvements in lithium-ion battery anodes cost and performance, by fabricating nano porous silicon (Si) particles from Si wafer sludge using the metal-assisted chemical etching (MACE) process. To solve the problem of volume expansion of Si during alloying/de-alloying with lithium ions, a layer was formed through nitric acid treatment, and Ag particles were removed at the same time. This layer acts as a core-shell structure that suppresses Si volume expansion. Additionally, the specific surface area of Si increased by controlling the etching time, which corresponds to the volume expansion of Si, showing a synergistic effect with the core-shell. This development not only contributes to the development of high-capacity anode materials, but also highlights the possibility of reducing manufacturing costs by utilizing waste Si wafer sludge. In addition, this method enhances the capacity retention rate of lithium-ion batteries by up to 38 %, marking a significant step forward in performance improvements.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.31-37
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• 2012

As a recovery of elemental silicon from the sludge of Si wafer process, a process of mechanical separation-chlorine roasting-electrolysis has been suggested. The silicon sludge consisted of Si, SiC, machine oil, and metallic impurities. The oil and metal impurities was removed by mechanical separation. The Si-SiC mixture was converted to silicon chloride by chlorine roasting at $1000^{\circ}C$ for 1 hr and the silicon chloride was dissolved into an ionic liquid of $[Bmpy]Tf_2N$ as an electrolyte. Cyclic voltammetry results showed an wide voltage window of pure $[Bmpy]Tf_2N$ and a reduction peak of elemental Si from $[Bmpy]Tf_2N$ dissolved $SiCl_4$ on Au electrode, respectively. The silicon deposits could be prepared on the Au electrode by the potentiostatic electrolysis of -1.9 V vs. Pt-QRE. The elemental silicon uniformly electrodeposited was confirmed by various analytical techniques including XRD, FE-SEM with EDS, and XPS. Any impurity was not detected except trace oxygen contaminated during handling for analysis.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.22-28
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• 2013

In the present study, the possibility of recovering and recycling the silicon carbide(SiC) from a silicon sludge by removing Fe and Si impurities was investigated. Si and SiC were separated from the silicon sludge using centrifugation. The separated SiC concentrate consisted of Fe, Si and SiC, in which Fe and Si were removed to recover the pure SiC. Leaching with acid/alkali solution was compared with the vapor-phase chlorination. The Fe concentration removed in the SiC was 49 ppm, and it was separated by leaching with 1 M HCl solution at $80^{\circ}C$ for 1 h. The Si concentration removed in the SiC was 860 ppm, and it was separated by leaching with 1M NaOH solution at $50^{\circ}C$ for 1 h. The SiC concentrate was chlorinated in a tubular reactor, 2.4 cm in diameter and 32 cm in length. The boat filled with SiC concentrate was located at the midpoint of the alumina tube, then, the chlorine and nitrogen gas mixture was introduced. The Fe and Si concentration removed in the SiC were 48 ppm and 405 ppm, respectively, at $500^{\circ}C$ reactor temperature, 4 h reaction time, 300 cc/min gas flow rate, and 10% $Cl_2$ gas mole fraction.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.51-57
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• 2010

As a recycling of Si sludge from Si wafer process, a Si-SiC-CuO-C composite material was synthesized and investigated as an anode material for lithium batteries. The Si sludge consisted of Si, SiC, machine oil, and metallic impurities. The oil and metal impurities was removed by organic washing, magnetic separation, and acid washing. The Si-SiC-CuO-C composite from the recovered Si-SiC mixture was prepared by high-energy mechanical milling. According to the electrochemical tests such as charge-discharge capacity and cycling behavior, it showed the improved cycle performance. The SiC and CuO-related phases were presumed to restrain the volume expansion of the anode and Fe, however, should be removed below 10 ppm prior to synthesis of the composite because it caused the capacity loss of the active material itself.