Scalable chemical synthesis of doped silicon nanowires for energy applications

International audienceA versatile, low-cost and easily scalable synthesis method is presented for producing silicon nanowires (SiNWs) as a pure powder. It applies air-stable diphenylsilane as a Si source and gold nanoparticles as a catalyst and takes place in a sealed reactor at 420°C (pressure 0.4%. When used in symmetric super-capacitor devices, 1% P-doped SiNWs exhibit an areal capacity of 0.25 mF cm −2 and retention of 80% of the initial capacitance after one million cycles, demonstrating excellent cycling stability of the SiNW electrodes in the presence of organic electrolytes