The treatment of photovoltaic (PV) waste is gaining traction the world over, with the recovery of valuable materials from end-of-life, or damaged and out-of-spec polycrystalline silicon PV modules. These materials are a focus of recycling. However, the current recycling practices usually involve excessive damage to PV cells that could otherwise be reused if extracted undamaged. The ability to extract undamaged PV cells, capable of reuse, would serve to further reduce the carbon footprint and cost associated with PV module manufacturing. This study focuses on the recovery of silicon PV cells from end-of-life PV modules by application of an organic solvent method. Herein, recovery tests were carried out in which silicon PV cells were recovered relatively undamaged with the application of hexane as solvent. XRD measurements showed that the recovered PV cells could be used in the fabrication of new PV modules.
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