Upgraded silicon nanowires by metal-assisted etching of metallurgical silicon: a new route to nanostructured solar-grade silicon.

Li, Xiaopeng; Xiao, Yanjun; Bang, Jin Ho; Lausch, Dominik; Meyer, Sylke; Miclea, Paul-Tiberiu; Jung, Jin-Young; Schweizer, Stefan L et al. · Adv Mater · 2013

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Through metal-assisted chemical etching (MaCE), superior purification of dirty Si is observed, from 99.74 to 99.9884% for metallurgical Si and from 99.999772 to 99.999899% for upgraded metallurgical Si. In addition, large area of silicon nanowires (SiNW) are fabricated. The purification effect induces a ∼35% increase in photocurrent for SiNW based photoelectrochemical cell.

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