Spatioselective Deposition of Passivating and Electrocatalytic Layers on Silicon Nanowire Arrays.

Wendisch FJ, Abazari M, Werner V, Barb H, Rey M, Görlitzer E, Vogel N, Mahdavi H, Bourret GR (2020)

Publication Language: English

Publication Status: Published

Publication Type: Journal article, Original article

Publication year: 2020

Journal

ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces American Chemical Society

DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c14013

Abstract

Metal–silicon nanowire array photoelectrodes provide a promising architecture for water-splitting because they can afford high catalyst loading and decouple charge separation from the light absorption process. To further improve and understand these hybrid nanowire photoelectrodes, control of the catalyst amount and location within the wire array is required. Such a level of control is currently synthetically challenging to achieve. Here, we report the synthesis of cm2-sized hybrid silicon nanowire arrays with electrocatalytically active Ni–Mo and Pt patches placed at defined vertical locations within the individual nanowires. Our method is based on a modified three-dimensional electrochemical axial lithography (3DEAL), which combines metal-assisted chemical etching (MACE) to produce Si nanowires with spatially defined SiO2 protection layers to selectively cover and uncover specific areas within the nanowire arrays. This spatioselective SiO2 passivation yields nanowire arrays with well-defined exposed Si surfaces, with feature sizes down to 100 nm in the axial direction. Subsequent electrodeposition directs the growth of the metal catalysts at the exposed silicon surfaces. As a proof of concept, we report photoelectrocatalytic activity of the deposited catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction on p-type Si nanowire photocathodes. This demonstrates the functionality of these hybrid metal/Si nanowire arrays patterned via 3DEAL, which paves the way for investigations of the influence of three-dimensional geometrical parameters on the conversion efficiency of nanostructured photoelectrodes interfaced with metal catalysts.

Authors with CRIS profile

Marcel Rey Lehrstuhl für Feststoff- und Grenzflächenverfahrenstechnik Eric Görlitzer Lehrstuhl für Feststoff- und Grenzflächenverfahrenstechnik Nicolas Vogel Professur für Partikelsynthese

Involved external institutions

Universität Salzburg (Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg) AT Austria (AT) University of Tehran IR Iran, Islamic Republic of (IR)

How to cite

APA:

Wendisch, F.J., Abazari, M., Werner, V., Barb, H., Rey, M., Görlitzer, E.,... Bourret, G.R. (2020). Spatioselective Deposition of Passivating and Electrocatalytic Layers on Silicon Nanowire Arrays. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. https://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsami.0c14013

MLA:

Wendisch, Fedja J., et al. "Spatioselective Deposition of Passivating and Electrocatalytic Layers on Silicon Nanowire Arrays." ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces (2020).

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