Open AccessResearch Status of Recovery of Tellurium from Cadmium Telluride Photovoltaic Modules
Author(s) -
Xiaofeng Zhang,
Wenjie Xu,
Songli Wang,
Dachun Liu,
Peilin Deng,
Jiankang Deng,
Wenlong Jiang
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
iop conference series. materials science and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1757-899X
pISSN - 1757-8981
DOI - 10.1088/1757-899x/782/2/022024
Subject(s) - tellurium , cadmium telluride photovoltaics , photovoltaic system , materials science , lead telluride , photovoltaics , cadmium , cadmium zinc telluride , optoelectronics , metallurgy , engineering , electrical engineering , doping , detector
Cadmium telluride is a direct band gap semiconductor with high optical absorption coefficient and excellent photoelectric conversion efficiency. Therefore, the proportion of cadmium telluride thin film solar cells in photovoltaic emerging technologies is increasing. The shortage of metal tellurium is the main factor restricting the development of cadmium telluride thin film photovoltaic cell technology. Therefore, it is necessary to recover tellurium from decommissioned cadmium telluride photovoltaic modules. In this paper, the treatment status of cadmium telluride photovoltaic decommissioning components is studied, and the characteristics of various recycling methods are analyzed and compared. Based on recent research progress and important findings, the challenges and future prospects of commercialization are forecasted.