Development for fabrication of refined silicon nanoparticles by transferred arc plasma system

Refining silicon and silicon nanoparticles are an important research area in solar energy research. These are related with solar cell efficiency. Silicon nanoparticles are also used for thin film solar cell and screen printing technology. We review the synthesis of silicon nanoparticles and refining of silicon. Refined silicon nanoparticles with minimal boron content were fabricated with transferred arc plasma equipped with impactor system. To control the chemical reactions leading to the formation of these compounds, H2O was injected into the shield gas line of the plasma torch. The plasma reactive time for boron removal was evaluated. The reactive time was altered by changing the flow rate of the shield gas of the plasma torch, fixing the powder feed concentration. The removal ratio of boron was also evaluated to conform if the boron content in the silicon particles was in the range required for standard solar grade silicon. The sizes and compositions of the particles were analyzed by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP), and X-Ray Diffraction(XRD) analysis.