Use of electrochemical etching to produce doped phenylacetylene functionalized particles and their thermal stability

Shane P. Ashby, Yimin Chao

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Silicon is an attractive material for the fabrication of thermoelectric materials. Previously, it was reported that phenylacetylene capped silicon nanoparticles (PA-SiNPs), which were synthesized from micelle reduction, displayed a ZT of up to 0.6 at ambient temperature. The major contributing factor to this result was the material’s low thermal conductivity. However, this material also displayed a low electrical conductivity compared to other thermoelectric materials. This is contributed to, in part, by low charge carrier concentration, which is difficult to control in micelle reduction-based methods. Top–down methods allow control of the carrier concentration as the material is doped prior to the breaking down of the material. PA-SiNPs were synthesized using electrochemical etching followed by functionalization. These particles were then analyzed with transmission electron microscopy (TEM), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The DSC and TGA trace were compared to those of PA-SiNPs synthesized by micelle reduction to show that the thermal stability range is much higher in the particles synthesized from the top–down method giving them a wider range of potential thermoelectric applications.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2006-2010
Number of pages5
JournalJournal of Electronic Materials
Volume43
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 2014

Keywords

  • Silicon
  • nanoparticles
  • thermoelectric
  • phenylacetylene
  • doping

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