Electrodeposition of Solar Cell Grade Silicon in High Temperature Molten Salts

Silicon is the most common material used in solar cells. High cost of silicon restricts the widely use of PV power. In order to make solar cells more accessible and affordable, it is strongly needed to develop a new and low-cost production process of solar energy silicon (SoG-Si). Electrodeposition of SoG-Si films appears to be a cost saving technique since solidification and sawing steps which contribute significantly to the overall cost of solar cells will be bypassed. Electrodeposition of SoG-Si has been evaluated during the last three decades, and some of them have shown promising results. Thermodynamic and kinetic considerations which relate to the electrodeposition of silicon are discussed, and progresses towards the developments of the electrodeposition of silicon in high temperature molten salts are reviewed in this paper.