Hybrid Platforms of Silicon Nanowires and Carbon Nanotubes in an Ionic Liquid Bucky Gel

Silicon nanowires (NWs) are appealing building blocks for low-cost novel concept devices with improved performances. In this research paper, we realized a hybrid platform combining an array of vertically oriented Si NWs with different types of bucky gels, obtained from carbon nanotubes (CNT) dispersed into an ionic liquid (IL) matrix. Three types of CNT bucky gels were obtained from imidazolium-based ionic liquids (BMIM-I, BIMI-BF4, and BMIM-Tf2N) and semiconductive CNTs, whose structural and optical responses to the hybrid platforms were analyzed and compared. We investigated the electrical response of the IL-CNT/NW hybrid junctions in dark and under illumination for each platform and its correlation to the ionic liquid characteristics and charge mobility. The reported results confirm the attractiveness of such IL-CNT/NW hybrid platforms as novel light-responsive materials for photovoltaic applications. In particular, our best performing cell reported a short-circuit current density of 5.6 mA/cm(2) and an open-circuit voltage of 0.53 V.

Automated summary

In this research, a hybrid platform combining vertically oriented silicon nanowires and different types of carbon nanotube bucky gels in an ionic liquid matrix was realized. The structural and optical responses of three types of CNT bucky gels to the hybrid platforms were analyzed and compared. The electrical response of the IL-CNT/NW hybrid junctions in dark and under illumination was investigated, and its correlation to the ionic liquid characteristics and charge mobility was studied. The results confirm the attractiveness of IL-CNT/NW hybrid platforms as novel light-responsive materials for photovoltaic applications, with the best performing cell showing a short-circuit current density of 5.6 mA/cm(2) and an open-circuit voltage of 0.53 V.