Effect of annealing temperature on the performance of water motion energy harvesting in n-type silicon thin film by magnetron sputtering

• Published in: Journal of materials science 2022, Vol.57 (3), p.1914-1922
• Main Authors: Yao, Hanyu, Wang, Lei, Chen, Xin, Jiang, Yuwei, Liu, Yushuang, Weng, Yaoyao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activation energy; Analysis; Annealing; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Classical Mechanics; Contact potentials; Crystallography and Scattering Methods; Dielectric films; Droplets; Electric potential; Electric power production; Electric properties; Electronic Materials; Energy; Energy harvesting; Magnetron sputtering; Materials Science; Polymer Sciences; Silicon; Silicon films; Sodium chloride; Solid Mechanics; Solid surfaces; Thin films; Transducers; Voltage
• ISSN: 0022-2461; 1573-4803
• DOI: 10.1007/s10853-021-06791-4

Harvesting energy through water motion on solid surface is significantly important due to the energy generation intermittency of the usually used energy transducers. In this paper, n -type silicon thin film is fabricated through magnetron sputtering followed by rapid thermal processing under different temperatures. The influence of the annealing temperatures on film crystallinity, phase, conductivity and conductivity activation energy is systematically investigated. Moreover, the voltage outputs on different silicon films through the sliding of NaCl solution droplet are systematically discussed. With increasing the annealing temperature from 300 to 900 °C, the voltage value increases firstly and then decreases, achieving a highest value of 1060 mV on the sample annealed at 600 °C, which is much higher than that of the mostly reported carbon materials. Finally, a schematic model, which is based on the combined effect of contact potential change between NaCl solution droplet and silicon film accompanied with the variation of the film conductivity, is proposed to unveil the underlying mechanism behind voltage output on various silicon films. All the findings provide not only a platform for achieving a higher output voltage but also a mechanism for a better understanding of the water motion induced energy harvesting.