Articles
  • Fabrication of high purity silica precipitates from quartz sand toward photovoltaic application

  • Agus Budi Prasetyoa, Murni Handayania,*, Eko Sulistiyonoa, F. Firdiyonoa, Eni Febrianaa, Wahyu Mayangsaria, Sayekti Wahyuningsihb, Edi Pramonob, Ahmad Maksumc, Rini Riastutid,* and Johny Wahyuadi Soedarsonod

  • aNational Research and Innovation Agency, Puspiptek Area, Setu, South Tangerang, Banten 15314, Indonesia
    bChemistry Department, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta 57126, Indonesia
    cDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, Politeknik Negeri Jakarta, Depok 16425, Indonesia
    dJohny Wahyuadi Laboratorium, Departement of Metallurgy and Materials, Universitas Indonesia, Depok 16424, Indonesia

  • This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

The development of renewable energy is becoming a crucial aspect because fossil fuels are non-renewable energy and will run out in the near future. Since Indonesia is in the equator area which gets sunshine throughout the year, solar cell is one of the renewable energy which is very promising as renewable energy. The obstacle to develop solar cell is the high cost of solar panel. Therefore, new technology to produce silica with high purity is important to be performed in order to be used as material in making solar panels. Here we fabricated high purity silica precipitates from quartz sands from Kendawangan, West Kalimantan. We fabricated silica precipitated by roasting quartz sand and then dissolving the sodium silicate into boiling water followed by leaching, precipitation and repeatedly washing using hydrochloric acid. The content of SiO2 of atomic absorption spectroscopy of quartz sand from Kendawangan contains SiO2 of 99.2% and the remaining trace elements are impurities. The roasting process was conducted using sodium carbonate with the comparison of quartz sand: sodium carbonate = 55:45 (% ratio) at 1.200 °C for 2 hours obtaining sodium silicate crystal. The final result of silica precipitates obtained in this research showed that the silica precipitates has very high purity with content of SiO2 up to 99.99%. This successful result will contribute for domestic industry which can provide high purity silica precipitates for material source of solar grade silicon in photovoltaic device


Keywords: Quartz sand, Roasting, Leaching, High purity, Silica, Precipitate

This Article

  • 2023; 24(1): 103-110

    Published on Feb 28, 2023

  • 10.36410/jcpr.2023.24.1.103
  • Received on Jul 1, 2022
  • Revised on Sep 16, 2022
  • Accepted on Oct 12, 2022

Correspondence to

  • Murni Handayani a, Rini Riastuti

  • aNational Research and Innovation Agency, Puspiptek Area, Setu, South Tangerang, Banten 15314, Indonesia
    Tel : +62 82114103137
    dJohny Wahyuadi Laboratorium, Departement of Metallurgy and Materials, Universitas Indonesia, Depok 16424, Indonesia
    Tel : +62 818-125-159

  • E-mail: murni.handayani@brin.go.id, riastuti@metal.ui.ac.i