China Youth Daily client讯（Reporter Hu Chunyan of China Youth Daily · China Youth Network, Correspondent Jiao Defang）- The Ministry of Natural Resources recently released an exciting piece of news: high-purity quartz ore has officially become the 174th statutory mineral species in our country. This seemingly ordinary "stone" is actually the "invisible cornerstone" of modern technological products such as photovoltaic power generation panels and 5G optical fibers. Behind this, the scientific research team of the School of Chemical Engineering at Tianjin University has used years of innovation to turn the "silicon" element in the ore into the "gold" that supports the country's high-tech industries.
The "magic" of high-purity quartz ore lies in its extremely pure silica dioxide - with a purity as high as 99.995% (equivalent to only 5 impurities per 100,000 atoms). This material is heat-resistant, highly insulating, and allows light to pass through unimpeded, making it a core raw material for manufacturing photovoltaic panel high-temperature furnace tubes and optical fiber preforms. However, more than 90% of the high-end high-purity quartz sand was long dependent on mines in countries like the United States, posing a "bottleneck" risk for our country's technological industry.
A turning point appeared in East Qinling, Henan, and Altay, Xinjiang - Chinese scientists discovered high-purity quartz ores here with qualities comparable to those of American mines. But the discovery of the ore was just the first step; the real challenge lay in how to transform these "stones" into "ultra-pure materials" suitable for high-tech product manufacturing.
The research team from the School of Chemical Engineering at Tianjin University was the key force in solving this problem. They developed the "chlorosilane distillation purification process," which acts like a precise "molecular sieve," filtering out impurities layer by layer from the ore to ultimately obtain highly pure polysilicon. This technology not only brought the product quality to the highest international standards but also significantly reduced energy consumption through the "multi-tower differential pressure coupling" technology, achieving green manufacturing. Even more astonishingly, the research team at the School of Chemical Engineering at Tianjin University invented the "integrated reaction distillation technology," condensing the traditional silicon hydride preparation process, which requires multiple steps, into one reaction tower. This "one-step" process has enabled China's silicon hydride production to account for over 90% of the global total, becoming the "technical heart" of granular silicon production. Granular silicon, as a new-generation photovoltaic material, reduces production costs by 30% compared to traditional processes, injecting "Chinese momentum" into global new energy development.
These breakthroughs are expected to increase China's annual capacity of semiconductor-grade high-purity quartz sand to over 50,000 tons, gradually achieving self-sufficiency in mid-to-low-end products. "Manufacturing materials that once needed to be imported can now be extracted using local ores and our own technologies; the pricing power that was once monopolized by foreign enterprises is loosening due to the rise of China's proprietary innovative technologies," said the head of the research team at the School of Chemical Engineering at Tianjin University. "The value of a 'stone' lies not only in its reserves underground but also in the sweat and wisdom in the laboratory."
Source: China Youth Daily client
Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7496058171909030412/
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