Scalable Large-Area 2D-MoS₂/Silicon-Nanowire Heterostructures for Enhancing Energy Storage Applications

Two-dimensional (2D) transition-metal dichalcogenides have shown great potential for energy storage applications owing to their interlayer spacing, large surface area-to-volume ratio, superior electrical properties, and chemical compatibility. Further, increasing the surface area of such materials can lead to enhanced electrical, chemical, and optical response for energy storage and generation applications. Vertical silicon nanowires (SiNWs), also known as black-Si, are an ideal substrate for 2D material growth to produce high surface-area heterostructures, owing to their ultrahigh aspect ratio. Achieving this using an industrially scalable method paves the way for next-generation energy storage devices, enabling them to enter commercialization. This work demonstrates large surface area, commercially scalable, hybrid MoS₂/SiNW heterostructures, as confirmed by Raman spectroscopy, with high tunability of the MoS₂ layers down to the monolayer scale and conformal MoS₂ growth, parallel to the silicon nanowires, as verified by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). This has been achieved using a two-step atomic layer deposition (ALD) process, allowing MoS₂ to be grown directly onto the silicon nanowires without any damage to the substrate. The ALD cycle number accurately defines the layer number from monolayer to bulk. Introducing an ALD alumina (Al₂O₃) interface at the MoS₂/SiNW boundary results in enhanced MoS₂ quality and uniformity, demonstrated by an order of magnitude reduction in the B/A exciton photoluminescence (PL) intensity ratio to 0.3 and a reduction of the corresponding layer number. This high-quality layered growth on alumina can be utilized in applications such as for interfacial layers in high-capacity batteries or for photocathodes for water splitting. The alumina-free 100 ALD cycle heterostructures demonstrated no diminishing quality effects, lending themselves well to applications that require direct electrical contact with silicon and benefit from more layers, such as electrodes for high-capacity ion batteries.