An important approach for solving the world's sustainable energy challenges is the conversion of solar energy to chemical fuels. Semiconductors can be used to convert/store solar energy to chemical bonds in an energy-dense fuel. Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water-splitting cells, with semiconductor electrodes, use sunlight and water to generate hydrogen. Herein, recent studies on improving the ef...

We report on the passivation properties of molecularly modified, oxide-free Si(111) surfaces. The reaction of 1-alcohol with the H-passivated Si(111) surface can follow two possible paths, nucleophilic substitution (SN) and radical chain reaction (RCR), depending on adsorption conditions. Moderate heating leads to the SN reaction, whereas with UV irradiation RCR dominates, with SN as a secondar...

Thermal atomic layer-deposited (ALD) aluminum oxide (Al2O3) acquires high negative fixed charge density (Qf) and sufficiently low interface trap density after annealing, which enables excellent surface passivation for crystalline silicon. Qf can be controlled by varying the annealing temperatures. In this study, the effect of the annealing temperature of thermal ALD Al2O3 films on p-type Czochr...

As a newly developed conductive ceramic with wide application prospects, the electrochemical corrosion behavior of Ti3SiC2 in 3.5% NaCl solution was investigated by potentiodynamic polarization, potentiostatic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Commercially pure titanium (CP Ti) was selected for comparative, and cooperated with XRD, XPS, SEM, the passivation behavior, corr...

We have performed a comprehensive study into low temperature ( 500 °C) internal gettering in multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si). Two groups of as-grown mc-Si wafers from different ingot height positions were subjected to the same thermal treatments with surface passivation by either silicon nitride (SiNx:H) or a temporary iodine-ethanol (I-E) chemical solution . With either passivation scheme, l...

Semiconductor (SC) quantum dots (QDs) have recently been fabricated by both chemical and plasma techniques for specific absorption and emission of light. Their optical properties are governed by the size of the QD and the chemistry of any passivation at their surface. Here, we decouple the effects of confinement and passivation by utilising DC magnetron sputtering to fabricate SC QDs in a perfl...

The study comprises evaluation of suitability of passive layer created on the surface of AISI 316L stainless steel for products that are intended to have contact with blood. For that purpose, prior to and after chemical passivation, samples were subject to 7 day exposure in artificial plasma at the temperature of T=37°C. Next, tests of metallic ions infiltration from the surface to the solution...

Hydrogenated silicon nitride and aluminum oxide passivation layers were deposited on boron doped floatzone silicon wafers that underwent a high temperature firing step. The passivation quality was monitored during thermal treatment at 75°C, 150°C and 250°C in darkness or under illumination. It was found that the passivation quality of the specific layers under investigation is far from stable i...

Thermal ALD deposited Al2O3 films on silicon show marked difference in surface passivation quality as a function of annealing time (using rapid thermal process). An effective and quality passivation is realized in short anneal duration (~100s) which is reflected in the low surface recombination velocity (SRV <10 cm/s). The deduced values are close to the best reported SRV obtained by high therm...