Recycling of CIGS solar cell waste materials - separation of copper, indium and gallium by high-temperature chlorination reaction with ammonium chloride

Abstract

Recycling of copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) solar cell materials is important to ensure future supply of indium and gallium. Our previous work includes recycling of selenium from CIGS materials and a scoping study on high-temperature chlorination for the separation of the remaining elements using different chlorination agents. In the present work we further develop high-temperature chlorination separation using ammonium chloride. The study showed that 97 wt% of the gallium and 93 wt% of the indium could be recovered at 260 and 340°C, respectively. The process resulted in good separation between gallium and copper while the indium content in the gallium and copper fractions were above the goal of 1 wt%.