Full metadata
Title
Silver Recovery from Silver Fluoride Solution for Solar Module Recycling
Description
As Energy needs grow and photovoltaics expand to meet humanity’s demand for electricity, waste modules will start building up. Tao et. al. propose a recycling process to recover all precious solar cell materials, a process estimated to generate a potential $15 billion in revenue by 2050. A key part of this process is metal recovery, and specifically, silver recovery. Silver recovery via electrowinning was studied using a hydrofluoric acid leachate/electrolyte. Bulk electrolysis trials were performed at varied voltages using a silver working electrode, silver pseudo-reference electrode and a graphite counter-electrode. The highest mass recovery achieved was 98.8% which occurred at 0.65 volts. Product purity was below 90% for all trials and coulombic efficiency never reached above 20%. The average energy consumption per gram of reduced silver was 2.16kWh/kg. Bulk electrolysis indicates that parasitic reactions are drawing power from the potentiostat and limiting the mass recovery of the system. In order to develop this process to the practical use stage, parasitic reactions must be eliminated, and product purity and power efficiency must improve. The system should be run in a vacuum environment and the reduction peaks in the cell should be characterized using cyclic voltammetry.
Date Created
2020-12
Contributors
- Tezak, Cooper R (Author)
- Tao, Meng (Thesis director)
- Phelan, Patrick (Committee member)
- Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor)
- School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)
- Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Topical Subject
Resource Type
Extent
22 pages
Language
eng
Copyright Statement
In Copyright
Primary Member of
Series
Academic Year 2020-2021
Handle
https://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.I.62332
Level of coding
minimal
Cataloging Standards
System Created
- 2020-10-27 12:00:07
System Modified
- 2021-08-11 04:09:57
- 3 years 3 months ago
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