On-Demand Hydrogen Generation using Nanosilicon: Splitting Water without Light, Heat, or Electricity

Nano Lett., 2013, 13 (2), pp 451–456, DOI: 10.1021/nl304680w
On-Demand Hydrogen Generation using Nanosilicon: Splitting Water without Light, Heat, or Electricity
Folarin Erogbogbo †‡§, Tao Lin §, Phillip M. Tucciarone §, Krystal M. LaJoie §, Larry Lai †, Gauri D. Patki §, Paras N. Prasad *†‡, and Mark T. Swihart *†§
pnprasad@buffalo.edu
swihart@buffalo.edu
†Institute for Lasers, Photonics, and Biophotonics, ‡Department of Chemistry, and §Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University at Buffalo (SUNY), Buffalo, New York 14260, United States
National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, School of Electronic Science and Engineering and School of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
Department of Chemistry, Korea University, Seoul, Korea, 136-701
Abstract
Authors report experimental results which show that nanosize silicon  reacts with water to generate hydrogen 1000 times faster than bulk silicon, 100 times faster than previously reported Si structures, and 6 times faster than competing metal formulations.
The H2 production rate using 10 nm Si is 150 times that achieved using 100 nm particles. This significantly exceeds the expected effect of increased surface to volume ratio. Authors believe this to be due to a change in the etching dynamics at the nanoscale from anisotropic etching of larger silicon to effectively isotropic etching of 10 nm silicon. Results indicate that nanosilicon may provide a practical approach for on-demand hydrogen production without addition of heat, light, or electrical energy.
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