Silicon Electrodeposition on Glassy Carbon, Silver, and Tungsten Substrates

Abstract

Increasing concerns on global warming and current environmental issues have directed research attention to the problems of energy saving, alternative energy sources, as well as to the improvement of the efficiency of existing chemical current sources. A particular focus is currently concentrated on solar energy use. High-purity silicon plates are employed as details in solar cells. Over the past ten years researchers have sought to create silicon nanomaterials able to significantly improve the efficiency of lithium-ion electrochemical batteries and photovoltaic cells. It is a common knowledge that the principle industrial method for producing high-purity silicon is based on vapor deposition; for example Siemens process [1]. However, it has a number of drawbacks in terms of power consumption, costly reagents, and sophisticated equipment. The development of a low-cost production process for solar and nanocrystalline silicon seems therefore an interesting research task. An alternative approach to the production of silicon is electrodeposition from molten salts containing silicon ions [2-7]. This method can be applied to obtain both coherent covers and Si-nanostructures, such as nanopowders and nanofibres.