Darkonez Posted November 29 Posted November 29 Hi Brainy people. could the below product in the image be separated maybe just with a magnet ? Pure silicon in uk is hard to come by. Thoughts ?
a_bab Posted November 29 Posted November 29 As said, it's an alloy. You can dissolve the iron with some acid though. Why not just buying silicon? Can be found for fairly cheap if you look well. Hint: those old cracked solar panels can be milled down and they are pure silicon.
Darkonez Posted December 1 Author Posted December 1 On 11/29/2024 at 8:03 PM, a_bab said: those old cracked solar panels can be milled down and they are pure silicon. Thank you for the reply. Could you expand on this though please. How to identify new from old. And what media to mill the SI ? I think it’s a rather hard material and my lead or brass media wouldn’t do the job ?
a_bab Posted December 1 Posted December 1 All solar panels are based on Si. By old I was meaning obsolete. New ones would work too. Yes, Si is about as hard as glass. Using some steel media works well. A magnet can remove the iron if you really want pure silicon but it wouldn't matter when used in a prime. 1
Darkonez Posted December 1 Author Posted December 1 Thank you for the clarification !! I’ll give this a try and see how it goes.
Mumbles Posted Thursday at 05:56 PM Posted Thursday at 05:56 PM Silicon is friable, meaning it will fracture and break and grind down. It's also quite hard, so it will be rough on most milling media. High alumina ceramic is about the only common media I can think of that might not get scratched up by it.
Darkonez Posted Thursday at 11:40 PM Author Posted Thursday at 11:40 PM Thank you. I ended up buying a solid lump of silicon putting it in a couple of zip seal bags and taking my 3lb hammer to it on the side face of an axe. Then small pieces put in mortar and pestle with plastic wrap over the top to stop it flying everywhere! ( Learning as I go). Now I have 120, 200 and 400 mesh SI.
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