Oxygen content-controllable synthesis of non-stoichiometric silicon suboxide nanoparticles by electrochemical anodization

Abstract

Silicon suboxide (SiO$_X$, 0 < X < 2) nanoparticles are very attractive materials in the field of semiconductor and coating due to their excellent mechanical, chemical, and optical properties. SiO$_X$ nanoparticles can vary the material properties depending on the content of oxygen among the constituent elements as well as the size of particles. Conventional methods to synthesize SiO$_X$ nanoparticles mainly use hot melting-condensation and chemical vapor deposition, but there are limitations such as the composition of complicated facilities due to high-temperature processes, difficulty in altering particle size, and so on. To overcome these limitations, this study proposed a route to synthesizing SiO$_X$ nanoparticles very simply and quickly with electrochemical oxidation and etching reactions using anodization. In addition, the oxygen content and particle size of SiO$_X$ nanoparticles were directly controlled by changing the anodization parameters, and the effects of each parameter on SiO$_X$ nanoparticles synthesized were analyzed. In this study, SiO$_X$ nanoparticles with various oxygen content and particle sizes fabricated with anodization have reasonable properties that suit the application purpose and are particularly valuable in the field of battery and optoelectronics.