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An on-chip micro-supercapacitor (μ-SC) based on Silicon nanowires (SiNWs) has been developed by Hot-wire chemical vapor process. First, finger patterned electrodes of Al were made on a silicon nitride coated Si wafer and SiNWs were then grown selectively on the Al electrodes. μ-SC performance has been tested in an ionic electrolyte and a capacitance of 13 μF/cm 2 has been obtained by the μ-SC. The resulted μ-SC can be exploited to store the harvesting energy in micro-electro-mechanical-systems and coupled with battery for peak power leveling. Low temperature growth of SiNWs at 350 °C makes it suitable for prospective flexible electronics applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the effect of chamber pressure on the morphology of hot wire chemical vapor processed silicon nanowires (SiNWs) using Sn as catalyst has been studied. It is observed that their geometrical orientation can be controlled as per requirement by adjusting the growth pressure. SiNWs synthesized at low pressure of 0.67 Pa grow preferentially perpendicular to the substrate. If the pressure is increased to 2.7 Pa, SiNWs become tilted to the substrate and have bending type structure with random distribution. Further increase in the chamber pressure to 4 Pa very few wires are seen to grow and at 5.3 Pa no-growth of SiNWs is observed. Transmission electron microscopy study shows that the straight SiNWs have crystalline structure whereas the bent ones show polycrystalline structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]