Query: Semiconductor nanowires for energy conversion Chem

Candidate papers:

abstract: Abstract The accomplishment of 1D semiconductor nanowires (SN) in the field of energy has attracted intense interest in recent years due to their advantageous properties (e.g. large surface area, unique surface chemistry, and tunable transport properties) Considerable efforts were devoted to explore 1D SN building blocks as the harvesting channel/unit (e.g. in thermal, chemical, mechanical, and solar energy applications) and as the storage media (for electrochemical energy) A wide bandgap tuning of SN in the range of 0.39 eV (in case of InAs nanowires) to 4.66 eV (in case of b Ga2O3 nanowires) due to quantum size effect makes them a suitable candidate for optoelectronic applications. This review focuses on 1D SN wherein the travel of electron and photon is confined in two directions but in one dimension. The SN emerged as promising nanostructures for developing electronic devices of high carrier mobilities (e.g. >12000 cm2V 1s 1 for holes and 3000 cm2V 1s 1 for electrons in case of Ge nanowires) A list of efficient fabrication strategies (e.g. vapor liquid solid [VLS] hard template approaches, and solution phase) are discussed along with ultrafast electron transport dynamics of SN and piezoelectric nanowires. The control on electrons, photons, and phonons transport makes 1D SN ideal for solid state energy conversion, harvesting, and storage applications. State of the art 1D SN energy nano systems have been demonstrated to yield diverse outcomes of high significance including single nanowire and array based photovoltaic cells (InP nanowires with a maximum power conversion efficiency up to 17.8% nanogenerators (SiGe nanowires with a maximum power output of 7.1 mW/cm2) supercapacitors (core shell hierarchical CoS@MoS2 nanowire array with an energy density of 95.7 Wh kg 1 at power density of 711.2 W kg 1) and lithium air batteries (3D freestanding hierarchical CuCo2O4 nanowires@Ni foam with an excellent specific capacity of 13654 mAh g 1 at 0.1 mA cm 2) This review will serve as a key platform to understand 1D SN to fabricate the next generation novel nano systems for developing efficient energy devices of high performance.
author_names: Monika Nehra

Neeraj Dilbaghi

Giovanna Marrazza

Ajeet Kumar Kaushik

Reza Abolhassani

Yogendra Kumar Mishra

Sandeep Kumar
title: 1D semiconductor nanowires for energy conversion, harvesting and storage applications
year: 2020

abstract: Semiconductor nanowires represent an important class of nanostructure building block for photovoltaics as well as direct solar to fuel application because of their high surface area, tunable bandgap and efficient charge transport and collection. In this talk, I will highlight several recent examples in this lab using semiconductor nanowires and their heterostructures for the purpose of solar energy harvesting. In addition, we have also discovered that the thermoconductivity of the silicon nanowires can be significantly reduced due to phonon scattering, pointing to a very promising approach to design better thermoelectrical materials. It is important to note that the engines that generate most of the world's power typically operate at only 30 40 per cent efficiency, releasing roughly 15 terawatts of heat to the environment. If this "wasted heat" could be recycled, the impact globally would be enormous. Our silicon nanowire thermoelectric technology could have a significant impact in alternative energy generation.
author_names: Peidong Yang
title: Semiconductor nanowires for energy conversion
venue: 2010 3rd International Nanoelectronics Conference (INEC)
year: 2010

abstract: Semiconductor nanowires represent an important class of nanostructure building block for photovoltaics as well as direct solar to fuel application because of their high surface area, tunable bandgap and efficient charge transport and collection. In this talk, I will highlight several recent examples in this lab using semiconductor nanowires and their heterostructures for the purpose of solar energy harvesting. In addition, we have also discovered that the thermoconductivity of the silicon nanowires can be significantly reduced due to phonon scattering, pointing to a very promising approach to design better thermoelectrical materials. It is important to note that the engines that generate most of the world's power typically operate at only 30 40 per cent efficiency, releasing roughly 15 terawatts of heat to the environment. If this "wasted heat" could be recycled, the impact globally would be enormous. Our silicon nanowire thermoelectric technology could have a significant impact in alternative energy generation.
author_names: Peidong Yang
title: Semiconductor nanowires for energy conversion
year: 2010

abstract: In this paper, a thermodynamic analysis on current photovoltaics is given within the Shockley Queisser model. Then the latest progresses of designing semiconductor nanowire arrays are introduced to achieve effective light trapping and reduce emission angle. Among them, non uniform nanowire arrays with gradient shapes hold both advantages of ultralow emission angle and light trapping, therefore which have attracted much research interest toward ultrahigh efficiency of solar energy conversion from visible to near infrared wavelength.
author_names: Tong Zhongying

Xie Tian

Ye Xin-Hui

Xia Hui

Li Ju-Zhu

Zhang Shuai-Jun

Jiang Xin-Yang

Chen Ze-zhong

Liang Tianxin
title: Research progress on semiconductor nanowires for high efficiency solar energy conversion
year: 2019

abstract: Cubic semiconductor nanowires grown along <100> directions have been reported to be promising for optoelectronics and energy conversion applications, owing to their pure zinc blende structure without any stacking fault. But, till date, only limited success has been achieved in growing <100> oriented nanowires. Here we report the selective growth of stacking fault free <100> nanowires on a commercial transparent conductive polycrystalline fluorine doped SnO2 (FTO) glass substrate via a simple and cost effective chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. By means of crystallographic analysis and density functional theory calculation, we prove that the orientation relationship between the Au catalyst and the FTO substrate play a vital role in inducing the selective growth of <100> nanowires, which opens a new pathway for controlling the growth directions of nanowires via the elaborate selection of the catalyst and substrate couples during the vapor solid liquid (VLS) growth process. The ZnSe nanowires grown on the FTO substrate are further applied as a photoanode in photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. It exhibits a higher photocurrent than the ZnSe nanowires without preferential orientations on a Sn doped In2O3 (ITO) glass substrate, which we believe to be correlated with the smooth transport of charge carriers in ZnSe <100> nanowires with pure zinc blende structures, in distinct contrast with the severe electron scattering happened at the stacking faults in ZnSe nanowires on the ITO substrate, as well as the efficient charge transfer across the intensively interacting nanowire substrate interfaces.
author_names: Kai Zhang

Yasir Abbas

Saad Ullah Jan

Lei Gao

Yuan Ma

Zhishan Mi

Xianglei Liu

Yimin Xuan

Jian Ru Gong
title: Selective growth of stacking fault free <100> nanowires on a polycrystalline substrate for energy conversion application.
venue: ACS applied materials interfaces
year: 2020

abstract: Controlling the growth and composition of nanowires is key to building photovoltaics, thermoelectrics and betavoltaics with optimal performance.Controlling the growth and composition of nanowires is key to building photovoltaics, thermoelectrics and betavoltaics with optimal performance.
author_names: Melissae Stuart Fellet
title: Semiconductor nanowires improve the performance of energy conversion devices
year: 2018

abstract: Semiconductor nanowires are promising building blocks for next generation solar energy conversion at low cost, due to their large absorption cross sections. Here, the understanding of their absorption power is explored via computational and experimental methods as well as its use in other fields, such as bio physics.
author_names: Eleonora Frau

Gozde Tutuncuoglu

Federico Matteini

H Potts

Rune Federiksen

Karen L Martinez

Anna Fontcuberta i Morral

Esther Alarcon-Llado
title: Understanding and exploiting optical properties in semiconductor nanowires for solar energy conversion
venue: 2016 IEEE Photonics Society Summer Topical Meeting Series (SUM)
year: 2016

abstract: Semiconductor nanowires (NW) possess several beneficial properties for efficient conversion of solar energy into electricity and chemical energy. Due to their efficient absorption of light, short distances for minority carriers to travel, high surface to volume ratios, and the availability of scalable synthesis methods, they provide a pathway to address the low cost to power requirements for wide scale adaptation of solar energy conversion technologies. Here we highlight recent progress in our group towards implementation of NW components as photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical energy conversion devices. An emphasis is placed on the unique properties of these one dimensional (1D) structures, which enable the use of abundant, low cost materials and improved energy conversion efficiency compared to bulk devices.
author_names: Neil P Dasgupta

Peidong Yang
title: Semiconductor nanowires for photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical energy conversion
year: 2014

abstract: Pb doping of SnO2 nanowires grown by the vapor liquid solid mechanism on 1 nm Au/Si has been investigated between 500 and 1000 degC via the reaction of Sn containing Pb with O2 at 10 1 mbar. The SnO2 nanowires have diameters of 50 nm, lengths up to 100 mm, and a tetragonal rutile crystal structure, but they do not contain Pb because of its significant depletion during the temperature ramp and re evaporation from the surface of the SnO2 nanowires. Consequently, we do not observe a semiconductor to semimetal transition and band gap narrowing. Instead, the Pb reacts with O2, leading to the deposition of PbO directly on Si but not on the SnO2 nanowires, which have carrier densities of 1016 cm 3. Furthermore, one dimensional growth was completely suppressed by increasing the amount of Pb in Sn. As such, Pb doping of SnO2 and the growth of PbxSn1 xO2 nanowires is difficult, if not impossible, because PbO2 nanowires cannot be grown by the vapor liquid solid mechanism irrespective of the growth temperature. In con.
author_names: Matthew Zervos

Andreas Othonos

Eugenia Tanasa

Eugeniu Vasile
title: High Temperature Pb Doping of SnO2 and Growth Limitations of PbxSn1 xO2 Nanowires Versus Low Temperature Growth of PbxSn1 xO for Energy Storage and Conversion
venue: The Journal of Physical Chemistry C
year: 2019

abstract: Abstract Branched heterostructures play an important role in solar energy harvesting through an efficient separation of photogenerated charges as well as enhancement in catalytic reaction sites. Here we report the CuO/Cu2O nanoflake/nanowire heterostructure with the enhanced surface area directly grown on Cu foil through scalable process steps ensuring easy large scale fabrication. A hydrothermal treatment on Cu2O nanowires, obtained through anodization of Cu foil and argon annealing, leads to a partial conversion of Cu2O into CuO nanoflakes resulting in a heterostructure with a highly enhanced surface area facilitating a higher semiconductor electrolyte interface. Brief annealing at 250 degC for 5 min on the sample results in a photocurrent density of 1.9 mA/cm2 (at 0.3 V vs. Ag/AgCl under AM1.5G illumination) which is about an order of magnitude higher than the Cu2O nanowires. Further, CuO/Cu2O shell/core heterostructure is fabricated through direct annealing of Cu2O nanowires to understand the effect of highly enhanced surface area over the charge separation due to heterostructure. A comparative study on both heterostructures by photocurrent, electrochemical impedance, and Mott Schottky measurements reveals that although CuO/Cu2O heterojunction helps in charge separation, however, the enhanced surface area obtained through nanoflake morphology has a dominating effect in deciding high photocurrent density.
author_names: Subish John

Somnath Chanda Roy
title: CuO/Cu2O nanoflake/nanowire heterostructure photocathode with enhanced surface area for photoelectrochemical solar energy conversion
year: 2020