Optical and Electrical Characteristics of Silicon Nanowires Prepared by Electroless Etching

Effect of Cuprous Oxide Nanocubes and Antimony Nanorods on the Performance of Silicon Nanowire-Based Quasi-Solid-State Solar Cell

Antimony nanorods (SbNRs) anchored to vertically aligned SiNWs serve as cosensitizers and enhance the light absorption of NWs, and their favorably positioned valence band (VB) coupled with their p-type semiconducting nature allows fast hole extraction from SiNWs. Photocorrosion of SiNWs is effectively prevented by a monolayer of N-[3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl]aniline (TMSPA). Upon assembling a quasi-solid-state solar cell with a SbNRs@TMSPA@SiNW photoanode, a triiodide-iodide (I₃ ^-/I^-) redox couple-based gel encompassing dispersed p-type cuprous oxide nanocubes (Cu₂O NCs) as the hole transport material. and an electrocatalytic NiO as the counter electrode, a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 4.7% (under 1 sun) is achieved, which is greater by 177% relative to an analogous cell devoid of the Cu₂O NCs and SbNRs. SbNRs at the photoanode maximize charge separation and suppress electron-hole and electron-I₃ ^- recombination at the photoanode/electrolyte interface, thereby improving the overall current collection efficiency. Concurrently, the Cu₂O NCs facilitate hole scavenging from SbNRs or SiNWs and relay them rapidly to the I^- ions in the electrolyte. Optically transparent and mesoporous NiO with a VB conducive to accepting electrons from FTO permits abundant interaction with I₃ ^- ions. The high PCE is a cumulative outcome of the synergistic attributes of SbNRs, Cu₂O NCs, and NiO. The SbNRs@TMSPA@SiNWs/Cu₂O-gel/NiO solar cell also exhibits a noteworthy operational stability, for it endures 500 h of continuous 1 sun illumination accompanied by an ∼24.4% drop in its PCE. The solar cell architecture in view of the judiciously chosen components with favorable energy level offsets, semiconducting/photoactive properties, and remarkable stability opens up pathways to adapt these materials to other solar cells as well.

Addressing the Theoretical and Experimental Aspects of Low-Dimensional-Materials-Based FET Immunosensors: A Review

Electrochemical immunosensors (EI) have been widely investigated in the last several years. Among them, immunosensors based on low-dimensional materials (LDM) stand out, as they could provide a substantial gain in fabricating point-of-care devices, paving the way for fast, precise, and sensitive diagnosis of numerous severe illnesses. The high surface area available in LDMs makes it possible to immobilize a high density of bioreceptors, improving the sensitivity in biorecognition events between antibodies and antigens. If on the one hand, many works present promising results in using LDMs as a sensing material in EIs, on the other hand, very few of them discuss the fundamental interactions involved at the interfaces. Understanding the fundamental Chemistry and Physics of the interactions between the surface of LDMs and the bioreceptors, and how the operating conditions and biorecognition events affect those interactions, is vital when proposing new devices. Here, we present a review of recent works on EIs, focusing on devices that use LDMs (1D and 2D) as the sensing substrate. To do so, we highlight both experimental and theoretical aspects, bringing to light the fundamental aspects of the main interactions occurring at the interfaces and the operating mechanisms in which the detections are based.

Comparative Analysis on Dielectric Gold and Aluminium Triangular Junctions: Impact of Ionic Strength and Background Electrolyte by pH Variations

Field of generating a surface thin film is emerging broadly in sensing applications to obtain the quick and fast results by forming the high-performance sensors. Incorporation of thin film technologies in sensor development for the better sensing could be a promising way to attain the current requirements. This work predominantly delineates the fabrication of the dielectric sensor using two different sensing materials (Gold and Aluminium). Conventional photolithography was carried out using silicon as a base material and the photo mask of the dielectric sensor was designed by AutoCAD software. The physical characterization of the fabricated sensor was done by Scanning Electron Microscope, Atomic Force Microscope, High Power Microscope and 3D-nano profiler. The electrical characterization was performed using Keithley 6487 picoammeter with a linear sweep voltage of 0 to 2 V at 0.01 V step voltage. By pH scouting, I-V measurements on the bare sensor were carried out, whereby the gold electrodes conducts a least current than aluminium dielectrodes. Comparative analysis with pH scouting reveals that gold electrode is suitable under varied ionic strengths and background electrolytes, whereas aluminium electrodes were affected by the extreme acid (pH 1) and alkali (pH 12) solutions.

Elucidating the Effect of Etching Time Key-Parameter toward Optically and Electrically-Active Silicon Nanowires

In this work, vertically aligned silicon nanowires (SiNWs) with relatively high crystallinity have been fabricated through a facile, reliable, and cost-effective metal assisted chemical etching method. After introducing an itemized elucidation of the fabrication process, the effect of varying etching time on morphological, structural, optical, and electrical properties of SiNWs was analysed. The NWs length increased with increasing etching time, whereas the wires filling ratio decreased. The broadband photoluminescence (PL) emission was originated from self-generated silicon nanocrystallites (SiNCs) and their size were derived through an analytical model. FTIR spectroscopy confirms that the PL deterioration for extended time is owing to the restriction of excitation volume and therefore reduction of effective light-emitting crystallites. These SiNWs are very effective in reducing the reflectance to 9-15% in comparison with Si wafer. I-V characteristics revealed that the rectifying behaviour and the diode parameters calculated from conventional thermionic emission and Cheung's model depend on the geometry of SiNWs. We deduce that judicious control of etching time or otherwise SiNWs' length is the key to ensure better optical and electrical properties of SiNWs. Our findings demonstrate that shorter SiNWs are much more optically and electrically active which is auspicious for the use in optoelectronic devices and solar cells applications.

Application of Doehlert Matrix for an Optimized Preparation of a Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) Substrate Based on Silicon Nanowires for Ultrasensitive Detection of Rhodamine 6G

In this work, we combined a hierarchical nano-array effect of silicon nanowires (SiNWs) with a metallic surface of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) to design a surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) scattering substrate for sensitive detection of Rhodamine 6G (R6G) which is a typical dye for fluorescence probes. The SiNWs were prepared by Metal-Assisted Chemical Etching (MACE) of n-Si (100) wafers. The Doehlert design methodology was used for planning the experiment and analyzing the experimental results. Thanks to this methodology, the R6G SERS response has been optimized by studying the effects of the silver nitrate concentration, silver nitrate and R6G immersion times and their interactions. The immersion time in R6G solution stands out as the most of influential factor on the SERS response.

Reusable Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Substrates Made of Silicon Nanowire Array Coated with Silver Nanoparticles Fabricated by Metal-Assisted Chemical Etching and Photonic Reduction

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has advanced over the last four decades and has become an attractive tool for highly sensitive analysis in fields such as medicine and environmental monitoring. Recently, there has been an urgent demand for reusable and long-lived SERS substrates as a means of reducing the costs associated with this technique To this end, we fabricated a SERS substrate comprising a silicon nanowire array coated with silver nanoparticles, using metal-assisted chemical etching followed by photonic reduction. The morphology and growth mechanism of the SERS substrate were carefully examined and the performance of the fabricated SERS substrate was tested using rhodamine 6G and dopamine hydrochloride. The data show that this new substrate provides an enhancement factor of nearly 1 × 10⁸. This work demonstrates that a silicon nanowire array coated with silver nanoparticles is sensitive and sufficiently robust to allow repeated reuse. These results suggest that this newly developed technique could allow SERS to be used in many commercial applications.