Efficient fabrication of nanoporous si and Si/Ge enabled by a heat scavenger in magnesiothermic reactions

Magnesiothermic reduction can directly convert SiO2 into Si nanostructures. Despite intense efforts, efficient fabrication of highly nanoporous silicon by Mg still remains a significant challenge due to the exothermic reaction nature. By employing table salt (NaCl) as a heat scavenger for the magnes...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2013-07, Vol.3 (1), p.2222, Article 2222
Main Authors: Luo, Wei, Wang, Xingfeng, Meyers, Colin, Wannenmacher, Nick, Sirisaksoontorn, Weekit, Lerner, Michael M, Ji, Xiulei
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chemistry Techniques, Synthetic
Crystals
Germanium - chemistry
Heat
Hot Temperature
Microscopy
Nanocrystals
Nanostructures - chemistry
Nanostructures - ultrastructure
Porosity
Silicon
Silicon - chemistry
Silicon Dioxide - chemistry
Sodium chloride
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Magnesiothermic reduction can directly convert SiO2 into Si nanostructures. Despite intense efforts, efficient fabrication of highly nanoporous silicon by Mg still remains a significant challenge due to the exothermic reaction nature. By employing table salt (NaCl) as a heat scavenger for the magnesiothermic reduction, we demonstrate an effective route to convert diatom (SiO2) and SiO2/GeO2 into nanoporous Si and Si/Ge composite, respectively. Fusion of NaCl during the reaction consumes a large amount of heat that otherwise collapses the nano-porosity of products and agglomerates silicon domains into large crystals. Our methodology is potentially competitive for a practical production of nanoporous Si-based materials.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/srep02222