Recycling Waste Crystalline-Silicon Solar Cells: Application as High Performance Si-Based Anode Materials for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Abstract

Recycling useful materials such as Ag, Al, Sn, Cu and Si from waste silicon solar cell chips is a sustainable proposal to offset the ever-growing amount of waste crystalline-silicon photovoltaic panels. However, the recovery cost of the above-mentioned materials from silicon chips via acid-alkaline treatments is economically unviable. Herein, we propose a new proof-of-concept to fabricate Si-based anodes with waste silicon chips as raw materials. Nanoparticles from waste silicon chips were prepared with the high-energy ball milling followed by introducing carbon nanotubes and N-doped carbon onto the nanoparticles, which amplifies the electrochemical properties. The results showed that the Al metal in the composite possesses an adverse impact on the electrochemical performance. After removing Al, the composite was confirmed to possess a pronounced durable cycling property due to the presence of Ag, resulting in significantly more superior property than the composite having both Al and Ag removed.