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

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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.