Electrochemical methods for making silicon nanopowder, silicon nanowires and silicon nanotubes

摘要

An electrochemical method for producing Si nanopowder, Si nanowires and/or Si nanotubes directly from compound SiX or a mixture containing a silicon compound SiX, the method comprises: providing an electrolysis cell having a cathode, an anode and an electrolyte, using the compound SiX or the mixture containing compound SiX as a cathode and immersing the cathode in an electrolyte comprising a metal compound molten salt, applying a potential between the cathode and the anode in the electrolysis cell, and forming one or more of Si nanopowder, Si nanowires and Si nanotubes on the cathode electrode. The method has advantages of: 1) shorter production processing, 2) inexpensive equipment, 3) convenient operation, 4) reduction of contaminate, 5) easily available feed materials, and 6) easy to achieve continuous production. This is a new field of using electrochemical method for producing one-dimensional Si nano material, and a new method of producing Si nanopowder, Si nanowires and Si nanotubes.

主权项

1. An electrochemical method for producing Si nanowires and/or Si nanotubes directly from a silicon compound SiO2 powder, the method comprising:
providing an electrolysis cell having a cathode, an anode and an electrolyte comprising a metal compound molten salt to carry out an electrolysis; using the silicon compound SiO2 powder as the cathode and immersing the cathode in the electrolyte; applying a cell voltage between the cathode and the anode in the electrolysis cell; and forming, on the cathode, an electrolysis product comprising one or more of Si nanowires and Si nanotubes, wherein the cell voltage applied between the cathode and the anode is less than 3.2V, and the cell voltage applied between the cathode and the anode is less than a decomposition potential of the electrolyte, and the electrolyte comprises CaO formed by hydrolysis of molten salt CaCl2 during a melting process at a high temperature.