Wetting and infiltration of nitride bonded silicon nitride by liquid silicon

• Six times reusability of NBSN crucibles could be demonstrated.
• Oxidation of geometrical surface prevents wetting by liquid silicon.
• Oxygen enrichment of the material volume suppresses liquid silicon infiltration.

Nitride bonded silicon nitride (NBSN) is a promising crucible material for the repeated use in the directional solidification of multicrystalline (mc) silicon ingots for photovoltaic applications. Due to wetting and infiltration, however, silicon nitride in its initial state does not offer the desired reusability. In this work the sessile drop method is used to systematically study the wetting and infiltration behavior of NBSN after applying different oxidation procedures. It is found that the wetting of the NBSN crucible by liquid silicon can be prevented by the oxidation of the geometrical surface. The infiltration of liquid silicon into the porous crucible can be suppressed by oxygen enrichment within the volume of the NBSN, i.e. at the pore walls of the crucibles. The realized reusability of the NBSN is demonstrated by reusing a NBSN crucible six times for the directional solidification of undoped multicrystalline silicon ingots.