Development of silicon purification by strong radiation catalysis method

Using a new type of solar furnace and a specially designed induction furnace, cost effective and highly efficient purification of metallurgical silicon into solar grade silicon can be achieved. It is realized by a new method for extracting boron from silicon with the aid of photo-chemical effect. In this article, we discussed the postulated principle of strong radiation catalysis and the recent development in practice. Starting from ordinary metallurgical silicon, we achieved a purification result of 0.12 ppmw to 0.3 ppmw of boron impurity in silicon by only single pass of a low cost and simple process, the major obstacle to make 'cheap' solar grade silicon feedstock in industry is thus removed. (rapid communication)