Photoelectrochemical behavior of Si nanostructures grown by chemical vapor deposition using waste-biomass sources
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-1-2021
Abstract
Silicon nanostructures were grown by a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique, using different silica masses, and their photoelectrochemical characteristics were investigated. These nanostructures were found mainly to have two kinds of structures; nanorods and nanowires. Si nanorods with an average diameter of about 250 +/- 50 nm were prepared at silica mass of 15 mg. An increase in silica to 100 mg results in a high density of Si nanowires with a relatively smaller in average diameter of 30 +/- 4 nm. Moreover, the band gap energies of the Si nanowires and nanorods are between 1.8 and 1.9 eV showing visible light absorption capability. The as-grown Si nanowires have a better photocurrent density of 0.5 mA cm(-2) as compared to as-grown Si nanorods, at a potential of 0 V in Ag/AgCl aqueous solution. This possibly due to the extremely large surface area and large number of active sites of Si nanowires, which could result in enhancing the water splitting oxidation and reduction processes. The role of silica in the growth mechanism was also discussed.
Keywords
Si nanowires, CVD, Biomass, Photoelectrochemical water splitting
Divisions
Science
Funders
University of Malaya SATU Joint Research Scheme [Grant No: ST004-2019],Newton Advanced Fellowship [Grant No: IF003-2017A@NA16010]
Publication Title
Journal of Solid State Chemistry
Volume
300
Publisher
Academic Press Inc Elsevier Science
Publisher Location
525 B ST, STE 1900, SAN DIEGO, CA 92101-4495 USA