Investigation of Plasma Process Efficacy for the Synthesis of High Purity Silicon

加拿大热生公司（PyroGenesis Canada Inc.）是一家活跃于设计和制造先进等离子体工艺材料**的公司，该公司的新项目是研究等离子体工艺合成高纯**硅的功效。公司在这个项目上面临着一些挑战。为了正确地测量所生产硅的纯度，需要开发一种严格的方法来分析最终材料中存在的杂质。因此，公司提出了与quit<e:1> du quemacei - montracei大学的Mathieu**Frenette教授团队的长期合作。等离子体雾化是最近发展起来的一项技术**，它可以生产出细而可流动的金属粉末。该技术是在等离子体中对二氧化硅进行高温碳热还原。电磁加热和感应等离子体混合的结合可以以合理的成本净化升级的冶金硅。项目的目的是确定等离子体雾化制造的硅中硼、铁、磷等杂质的含量。由于酸消化过程中硼氧化物的蒸发，硼的定量特别复杂，需要研究解决这一问题。我们建议用硼与甘露醇络合来防止挥发性杂质的蒸发。用扫描电子显微镜（SEM）研究样品的大小，用能量色散光谱（EDS）和电感耦合等离子体质谱（ICP-MS）分别测定样品的杂质百分比。该项目将导致该公司将生产的**加工硅的杂质性质的实验结果。这将使公司能够设计和制造更合适的产品并改善其性能。这将有助于公司的发展，这将对加拿大其他活跃于工程和材料加工的行业的发展产生影响。对这些产品杂质的控制，也有助于公司更好地为加拿大这些公司提供硅粉生产的**服务。

This new project of PyroGenesis Canada Inc., an active company in the design and manufacture of materials**with advanced plasma processes, is the investigation of plasma process efficacy for the synthesis of high purity**silicon. The company is faced with some challenges for this project. To properly measure the purity of the**silicon produced, a rigorous method will need to be developed to analyze impurities present in the final**material. Therefore, the company has proposed a long-term collaboration with the team of Professor Mathieu**Frenette at the Université du Québec à Montréal. The plasma atomization is a recently-developed technology**that produces fine and flowable metal powders. In this technology, the carbothermic reduction of silicon**dioxide at high temperature is carried out in the plasma. The combination of electromagnetic heating and**mixing with inductive plasma allows to purify upgraded metallurgical silicon at reasonable cost. The objective**of project is to determine the impurities such as boron, iron and phosphorus content in the silicon that will be**manufactured by plasma atomization. Boron quantification is particularly complicated by the evaporation of**boron oxides during acid digestion and Pyrogenesis will require research to address this issue. We propose to**prevent the evaporation of volatile impurities with the complexation of boron with mannitol. The size of**samples will be explored with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the percentage of their impurities will**be determined with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry**(ICP-MS), respectively. This project will lead to the experimental results on the properties of the impurities of**processed silicon that will be manufactured by the company. This will enable the company to design and**manufacture more appropriate products and improve their properties. This will help the growth of the company**that will have impact on the development of other Canadian industries that are active in the engineering and**processing of materials. The control of impurities of these products will also help the company deliver a better**service of production of silicon powders to these companies in Canada.