Separation of Tellurium from Metal Chalcogenides through Mild Anhydrous Chlorination
Madeleine C Uible1, Jerod M Kieser1, Suzanne C Bart1
1Department of Chemistry, H.C. Brown Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA.
Abstract:
The separation of tellurium from cadmium telluride is examined using a unique combination of mild, anhydrous chlorination and complexation of the subsequent tellurium tetrachloride with 3,5-di-tert-butylcatecholate ligands (dtbc). The resulting tellurium complex, Te(dtbc)2 , is isolated in moderate yield and features a 103 to 104 reduction in cadmium content, as provided by XRF and ICP-MS analysis. Similar results were obtained from zinc telluride. A significant separation between Te, Se, and S was observed after treating a complex mixture of metal chalcogenides with this protocol. These three tunable steps can be applied for future applications of CdTe photovoltaic waste.
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