Rui Huang

Bio: Rui Huang is an academic researcher from North China Electric Power University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Materials science & Welding. The author has an hindex of 7, co-authored 12 publications receiving 136 citations.

A one-step template-free approach to achieve tapered silicon nanowire arrays with controllable filling ratios for solar cell applications

Abstract: A facile and low-cost one-step template-free approach is presented for the fabrication of tapered silicon nanowire (SiNW) arrays. A silver network catalyst is used to chemically etch silicon in a HF/H2O2 solution, where the solution is chosen to selectively dissolve the silver network during the etching process, resulting in the formation of tapered SiNWs. Notably, the filling ratio of the tapered SiNWs can be tuned simply by varying the pattern of the silver network. Surface reflection was strongly suppressed in the tapered SiNW arrays (only 400 nm in thickness), which were employed in SiNWs/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxy-thiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) heterojunction solar cells exhibiting a power conversion efficiency of 6.7%. The tapered SiNW arrays prepared by this one-step template-free method are expected to be efficient structures for a variety of photovoltaic devices.

Template-free fabrication of silicon micropillar/nanowire composite structure by one-step etching.

Abstract: A template-free fabrication method for silicon nanostructures, such as silicon micropillar (MP)/nanowire (NW) composite structure is presented. Utilizing an improved metal-assisted electroless etching (MAEE) of silicon in KMnO4/AgNO3/HF solution and silicon composite nanostructure of the long MPs erected in the short NWs arrays were generated on the silicon substrate. The morphology evolution of the MP/NW composite nanostructure and the role of self-growing K2SiF6 particles as the templates during the MAEE process were investigated in detail. Meanwhile, a fabrication mechanism based on the etching of silver nanoparticles (catalyzed) and the masking of K2SiF6 particles is proposed, which gives guidance for fabricating different silicon nanostructures, such as NW and MP arrays. This one-step method provides a simple and cost-effective way to fabricate silicon nanostructures.

Silicon nanowire arrays coated with electroless Ag for increased surface-enhanced Raman scattering

Abstract: The ordered Ag nanorod (AgNR) arrays are fabricated through a simple electroless deposition technique using the isolated Si nanowire (SiNW) arrays as the Ag-grown scaffold. The AgNR arrays have the single-crystallized structure and the plasmonic crystal feature. It is found that the formation of the AgNR arrays is strongly dependent on the filling ratio of SiNWs. A mechanism is proposed based on the selective nucleation and the synergistic growth of Ag nanoparticles on the top of the SiNWs. Moreover, the special AgNR arrays grown on the substrate of SiNWs exhibit a detection sensitivity of 10−15M for rhodamine 6G molecules, which have the potential application to the highly sensitive surface-enhanced Raman scattering sensors.

Wafer-scale fabrication of uniform Si nanowire arrays using the Si wafer with UV/Ozone pretreatment

Abstract: The electroless etching technique combined with the process of UV/Ozone pretreatment is presented for wafer-scale fabrication of the silicon nanowire (SiNW) arrays. The high-level uniformity of the SiNW arrays is estimated by the value below 0.2 of the relative standard deviation of the reflection spectra on the 4-in. wafer. Influence of the UV/Ozone pretreatment on the formation of SiNW arrays is investigated. It is seen that a very thin SiO2 produced by the UV/Ozone pretreatment improves the uniform nucleation of Ag nanoparticles (NPs) on the Si surface because of the effective surface passivation. Meanwhile, the SiO2 located among the adjacent Ag NPs can obstruct the assimilation growth of Ag NPs, facilitating the deposition of the uniform and dense Ag NPs catalysts, which induces the formation of the SiNW arrays with good uniformity and high filling ratio. Furthermore, the remarkable antireflective and hydrophobic properties are observed for the SiNW arrays which display great potential in self-cleaning antireflection applications.

Ag/AgCl plasmonic cubes with ultrahigh activity as advanced visible-light photocatalysts for photodegrading dyes

Abstract: Among numerous visible-light photocatalysts, plasmonic structure is a promising photocatalyst for photodegradation and energy generation. Ag/AgCl composite as an alternative visible-light photocatalyst has attracted extensive interests; however, its syntheses has many visible flaws, e.g. high temperature environment, requirement of various templates or additives, complicated synthetic procedures and impurities in the final products. For these issues, herein, we report, for the first time, a simple, facile, rapid and green technique to synthesize Ag/AgCl heterostructured cubes using a one-step process of laser irradiation in liquids. The fabricated Ag/AgCl cubes possess some active {111} facets and a high visible-light utilization efficiency induced by the localized surface plasmon resonance (SPR) from the Ag/AgCl heterostructure. As plasmonic photocatalysts, these Ag/AgCl cubes exhibited excellent photodegrading performance for dye molecules of methyl orange, Rhodamine B and methylene blue, and the photodegradation rates were about 0.268, 0.057, and 0.094 min−1, which are considerably higher than that of commercial Ag3PO4 by a factor of 29.8, 3.8 and 6.7, respectively. The high photo-stability of the Ag/AgCl cubes was also demonstrated. The SPR-mediated photocatalytic mechanism was proposed to address the ultrahigh activity of the Ag/AgCl heterostructure as an advanced visible-light photocatalyst. These results showed the broad applicability of the developed technique for accessing a new plasmonic photocatalyst with high-performance.