Photovoltaic conversion is a promising energy resource. Bulk crystalline silicon technologies currentlydominate the market but suffer from high material losses that are highly detrimental to solar cellproduction costs. The challenge is then the elaboration of low cost silicon materials through a powdermetallurgy route. However, silicon sintering is dominated by grain coarsening mechanisms thatpreclude densification. Identification of these mechanisms is controversial in the literature. Especially,the role of the native oxide layer (SiO2) at the powder particle surfaces has remained unexplored yet.In this manuscript, the influence of the atmosphere on the reduction of this silica layer is studied usingthermogravimetric analysis. Reduction kinetics is consistent with a thermochemical model taking intoaccount the powder oxygen content, the partial pressure of oxidizing species and the pore morphologyof the sintered material. For the first time, experimental evidences support the idea that the silica layerinhibits grain coarsening. New sintering processes, involving a control of the silicon monoxideatmosphere (SiO(g)) surrounding the sample are then proposed and investigated in order to monitorthe stability of this layer. Stabilization of the silica layer at temperatures as high as 1300 – 1400 °C isshown to enhance densification although it retards lattice diffusion kinetics. In these conditions, thesintering behavior can be divided into two sequential stages marked by two shrinkage peaks on thedilatometric curves. This result is unusual for the sintering of single-phase materials. However, it canbe explained with help of a kinetic model using appropriate geometrical simplifications andobservations of the sample microstructures.
