New paper in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces

Soundarrajan and colleagues have recently published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces their work on the development of an effective solar-powered silicon device for hydrogen production from water splitting. There is increasing demand for nanostructuring in silicon to improve its antireflective properties for efficient solar energy conversion. Diatom frustules are naturally occurring biosilica nanostructures formed by biomineralizing microalgae. In the manuscript, they demonstrate magnesiothermic conversion of boron-doped silica diatom frustules from Aulacoseira sp. into nanostructured silicon with retention of the original shape. Hydrogen production was achieved for boron-doped silicon diatom frustules coated with indium phosphide nanocrystal layers and an iron sulfur carbonyl electrocatalyst.

You can find out more in: ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 7 (2015) 17381-17387