Single crystalline ordered silicon wire/Pt nanoparticle hybrids for solar energy harvesting

In this work, we developed a method combining lithography and metal-catalyzed Si etching to fabricate highly ordered Si wire arrays with uniform coverage over an entire 4 in. wafer. The wire periodicity and dimensions depend on the lithography and the etching conditions. Photoelectrochemical measurements show that the as-prepared Si wire samples are photoactive owing to surface enhancement and become especially effective in solar-to-electrical conversion and water splitting after surface modification with Pt nanoparticles.