Chemists at Oregon State University have identified a
compound that could significantly reduce the cost and potentially enable the
mass commercial production of silicon nanostructures – materials that have huge
potential in everything from electronics to biomedicine and energy storage.
This extraordinary compound is called table salt.
Simple sodium chloride, most frequently found in a salt
shaker, has the ability to solve a key problem in the production of silicon
nanostructures, researchers just announced in Scientific Reports, a
professional journal.