Rice University discovery employs electrodes as catalysts to
make black silicon
(May 13, 2015) Rice University scientists have found a way
to simplify the manufacture of solar cells by using the top electrode as the
catalyst that turns plain silicon into valuable black silicon.
The Rice lab of chemist Andrew Barron disclosed the research
in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.
Black silicon is silicon with a highly textured surface of
nanoscale spikes or pores that are smaller than the wavelength of light. The
texture allows the efficient collection of light from any angle, at any time of
day. Barron and his team have been fine-tuning the creation of black silicon
for some time, but an advance in the manufacturing technique should push it
closer to commercialization, he said.