Functionalized Nano-porous Silicon
Surfaces for Energy Storage Application
Pushpendra Kumar
Abstract Energy storage has been of a topic of curiosity since long for a persistent
human activity. Storing power from several intermittent sources has been a great
interest of scientific community and grows as the renewable energy industry begins to
generate a larger fraction of overall energy consumption. Several renewable sources
of energy exist, e.g., wind energy, solar energy, bioenergy, etc., but the problem is to
store this energy and again reuse it when needed. For that an electrode is required that
has high-energy storage capacity. The electrode that has a very large surface area,
long durability, and high conductivity is prerequisite. Electrochemically prepared
porous silicon where the physical properties, e.g., pore diameter, porosity, and pore
length can be controlled by etching parameter and the functionalized nanostructured
surfaces of porous silicon, might be the key material to develop high-energy storage
electrodes.
Keywords Porous silicon · Renewable energy · Functionalized nanostructured
surfaces · Electrochemical etching
1 Introduction
Climate change is one of the major challenges that the international community is
facing at present. However, there is no immediate solution to the problem. But it
can only be solved through efficient materials and scientific knowledge. Most of the
scientists agree that the climate change is due to greenhouse gases. The gases that
contribute to the greenhouse effect are N 2 O, CO 2 , CH 4 , water. One of the important
sources for generating these greenhouse gases is the burning of fossil fuels like coal
and oil. An alternative source of renewable energy that includes solar energy, wind
energy, hydropower, geothermal energy, and biomass energy is required to avoid
the use of fossil fuels. The power generation systems such as solar and wind have
limitations due to their intermittency and the fact that maximum production periods
do not correspond to the times of highest demand. This limits the practicality of solar
P. Kumar (B)
Department of Physics, Manipal University Jaipur, Jaipur 303007, Rajasthan, India
e-mail: pushpendra.kumar@jaipur.manipal.edu
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
L. Ledwani and J. S. Sangwai (eds.), Nanotechnology for Energy and Environmental
Engineering, Green Energy and Technology,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33774-2_16
377
Surfaces for Energy Storage Application
Pushpendra Kumar
Abstract Energy storage has been of a topic of curiosity since long for a persistent
human activity. Storing power from several intermittent sources has been a great
interest of scientific community and grows as the renewable energy industry begins to
generate a larger fraction of overall energy consumption. Several renewable sources
of energy exist, e.g., wind energy, solar energy, bioenergy, etc., but the problem is to
store this energy and again reuse it when needed. For that an electrode is required that
has high-energy storage capacity. The electrode that has a very large surface area,
long durability, and high conductivity is prerequisite. Electrochemically prepared
porous silicon where the physical properties, e.g., pore diameter, porosity, and pore
length can be controlled by etching parameter and the functionalized nanostructured
surfaces of porous silicon, might be the key material to develop high-energy storage
electrodes.
Keywords Porous silicon · Renewable energy · Functionalized nanostructured
surfaces · Electrochemical etching
1 Introduction
Climate change is one of the major challenges that the international community is
facing at present. However, there is no immediate solution to the problem. But it
can only be solved through efficient materials and scientific knowledge. Most of the
scientists agree that the climate change is due to greenhouse gases. The gases that
contribute to the greenhouse effect are N 2 O, CO 2 , CH 4 , water. One of the important
sources for generating these greenhouse gases is the burning of fossil fuels like coal
and oil. An alternative source of renewable energy that includes solar energy, wind
energy, hydropower, geothermal energy, and biomass energy is required to avoid
the use of fossil fuels. The power generation systems such as solar and wind have
limitations due to their intermittency and the fact that maximum production periods
do not correspond to the times of highest demand. This limits the practicality of solar
P. Kumar (B)
Department of Physics, Manipal University Jaipur, Jaipur 303007, Rajasthan, India
e-mail: pushpendra.kumar@jaipur.manipal.edu
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
L. Ledwani and J. S. Sangwai (eds.), Nanotechnology for Energy and Environmental
Engineering, Green Energy and Technology,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33774-2_16
377