Fabrication of carbon-coated silicon nanowires and their application in dye-sensitized solar cells

We report the fabrication of silicon/carbon core/shell nanowire arrays using a two-step process, involving electroless metal deposition and chemical vapor deposition. In general, foreign shell materials that sheath core materials change the inherent characteristics of the core materials. The carbon coating functionalized the silicon nanowire arrays, which subsequently showed electrocatalytic activities for the reduction of iodide/triiodide. This was verified by cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. We employed the carbon-coated silicon nanowire arrays in dye-sensitized solar cells as counter electrodes. We optimized the carbon shells to maximize the photovoltaic performance of the resulting devices, and subsequently, a peak power conversion efficiency of 9.22% was achieved.