Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Low-Load Metal-Assisted Catalytic Etching Produces Scalable Porosity In Si Powders, Konstantin Tamarov, Riku Kiviluoto, Josph D. Swanson, Bret A. Unger, Alexis T. Ernst, Mark Aindow, Joakim Riikonen, Vesa-Pekka Lehto, Kurt W. Kolasinski

Chemistry Faculty Publications

The recently discovered low-load metal-assisted catalytic etching (LL-MACE) creates nanostructured Si with controllable and variable characteristics that distinguish this technique from the conventional high-load variant. LL-MACE employs 150 times less metal catalyst and produces porous Si instead of Si nanowires. In this work, we demonstrate that some of the features of LL-MACE cannot be explained by the present understanding of MACE. With mechanistic insight derived from extensive experimentation, it is demonstrated that (1) the method allows the use of not only Ag, Pd, Pt, and Au as metal catalysts but also Cu and (2) judicious combinations of process parameters such …