Morphological and Structural Modifications of Si-Based Nanostructures Synthesized from Metal Silicide Templates in IP6, Acid and Metal Chloride Solutions

Abstract

Powders consisting of Si-based nanostructures were synthesized by the extraction of Ca atoms from CaSi2 powders using an inositol hexakisphosphate (IP6) aqueous solution. The raw CaSi2 powders were simply immersed in a diluted IP6 solution, then dried. It is noted that the Si-based nanostructures were easily exfoliated from the powders to expose the surfaces corresponding to the Si {111} planes of the nanostructures. In addition, the Si-based nanostructures were also synthesized by metal atom extraction from SrSi2, BaSi2 and Mg2Si using the IP6 aqueous solution. It was found that the nanostructures mainly including the amorphous Si-oxide phase were obtained for the IP6-treated SrSi2, BaSi2 and Mg2Si powders. Moreover, the amorphous Si oxide-based nanostructures were synthesized from CaSi2 using citric acid, malic acid, FeCl3 and FeCl2 aqueous solutions. It was demonstrated that the morphological and structural properties of the synthesized Si-based nanostructures depend on the silicide templates and the solutions.