EPJ Web of Conferences 29, 00014 (2012)
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/20122900014

Impurity removal process for high-purity silica production by acid leaching

Laboratoire de Photovoltaïque, Centre de Recherche et des Technologies de l’Energie, Technopole de Borj-Cédria, BP 95, 2050 Hammam-Lif, Tunisie

^a e-mail: Khhalifa_marouan@yahoo.fr

Abstract

In our days obtaining silica sand with very high purity is a primordial stage in photovoltaic industry. The effects of acids on the removal of impurity from silica sand have been studied using leaching acids: mixture composed of HF/HCl/H₂O with a volume composition of (1:7:24).The obtained material was characterized using Ultraviolet-Visible absorbance (UV-Vis) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES). Results of the application of this technique show a significant reduction of the amounts of undesirable impurities present in natural silica (such as Co, Fe, Ca, Al, Mg …).