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Research Article

On-demand production of hydrogen by reacting porous silicon nanowires with water

Rui Ning1,§, Yue Jiang2,§, Yitian Zeng1, Huaxin Gong3, Jiheng Zhao2, Jeffrey Weisse2, Xinjian Shi2, Thomas M. Gill2, Xiaolin Zheng2( )
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA

§ Rui Ning and Yue Jiang contributed equally to this work.

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Abstract

On-demand hydrogen generation is desired for fuel cells, energy storage, and clean energy applications. Silicon nanowires (SiNWs) and nanoparticles (SiNPs) have been reported to generate hydrogen by reacting with water, but these processes usually require external assistance, such as light, electricity or catalysts. Herein, we demonstrate that a porous SiNWs array, which is fabricated via the metal-assisted anodic etching (MAAE) method, reacts with water under ambient and dark conditions without any energy inputs. The reaction between the SiNWs and water generates hydrogen at a rate that is about ten times faster than the reported rates of other Si nanostructures. Two possible sources of enhancement are discussed: SiNWs maintain their high specific surface area as they don’t agglomerate, and the intrinsic strain of the nanowires promotes the reactivity. Moreover, the porous SiNWs array is portable, reusable, and environmentally friendly, yielding a promising route to produce hydrogen in a distributed manner.

Keywords

silicon nanowireporous siliconhydrogen generationmetal-assisted anodic etchingmetal-assisted chemical etchingwater

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Nano Research
Volume 13 Issue 5,
May 2020
Pages 1459-1464
DOI: 10.1007/s12274-020-2734-8
Cite this article:
Ning R, Jiang Y, Zeng Y, et al. On-demand production of hydrogen by reacting porous silicon nanowires with water. Nano Research, 2020, 13(5): 1459-1464. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2734-8
Topics:
Nano unitElectric energy storageEtchingFuel cellsHydrogen storageNanowiresPorous siliconReaction rates

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Received: 31 October 2019
Revised: 07 February 2020
Accepted: 11 February 2020
Published: 19 March 2020
© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
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