1. Silicon Allotropy and Chemistry at Extreme Conditions
- Author
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Timothy A. Strobel, Wilson A. Crichton, Oleksandr O. Kurakevych, and Yann Le Godec
- Subjects
Silicon ,Chemistry ,business.industry ,Band gap ,chemistry.chemical_element ,Nanotechnology ,010402 general chemistry ,01 natural sciences ,0104 chemical sciences ,high pressure ,Semiconductor ,Energy(all) ,Photovoltaics ,Phase (matter) ,0103 physical sciences ,Allotropy ,Electronics ,010306 general physics ,business ,silicon allotropes ,Scaling - Abstract
Silicon is essential for today's electronics because of its ability to show various electronic behaviors that are relevant to numerous fields of cutting-edge applications. It is not a pollutant and, therefore, an ideal candidate to replace the actual materials in photovoltaics, such as compounds based on the arsenic and heavy metals. However, conventional diamond-like Si is an indirect gap semiconductor and cannot absorb solar photons directly. This justifies intensive theoretical and experimental research for the direct-bandgap forms of silicon. Our recent high-pressure studies of the chemical interaction and phase transformations in the Na-Si system, revealed a number of interesting routes to new and known silicon compounds and allotropes. The pressure-temperature range of their formation is suitable for large-volume synthesis and future industrial scaling. The variety of properties observed (e.g. quasi-direct bandgap of open-framework allotrope Si 24 ) allows us to suggest future applications.
- Published
- 2016
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