Inorganic semiconducting nanowires for green energy solutions
Dhayalan Shakthivel, Abhishek Singh Dahiya, Rudra Mukherjee, Ravinder Dahiya
Abstract
Single-crystalline inorganic semiconducting nanowires (NWs) of technologically important materials such as Si, Ge, GaAs, ZnO and so on. have attracted significant attention in providing sustainable energy solutions (generation/storage) due to their attractive physical and chemical properties. Currently, the production processes of these devices is unavoidably wasteful and requires urgent attention. There is need to establish resource efficient and eco-friendly manufacturing for energy devices using inorganic NWs. The present work is dedicated to identifying such a route and materials, through critical analysis of various device development stages, namely (i) NW’s synthesis methods, (ii) NW-based electronic layer fabrication, and (iii) metals, interconnects, and packaging forming techniques. We have also presented the current state-of-the-art of NW-based green energy solutions for next-generation of energy autonomous systems on flexible substrates.