Solution-phase synthesis of single-crystal Cu3Si nanowire arrays on diverse substrates with dual functions as high-performance field emitters and efficient anti-reflective layers.

There is strong and growing interest in applying metal silicide nanowires as building blocks for a new class of silicide-based applications, including spintronics, nano-scale interconnects, thermoelectronics, and anti-reflective coating materials. Solution-phase environments provide versatile materials chemistry as well as significantly lower production costs compared to gas-phase synthesis. However, solution-phase synthesis of silicide nanowires remains challenging due to the lack of fundamental understanding of silicidation reactions. In this study, single-crystalline Cu3Si nanowire arrays were synthesized in an organic solvent. Self-catalyzed, dense single-crystalline Cu3Si nanowire arrays were synthesized by thermal decomposition of monophenylsilane in the presence of copper films or copper substrates at 420 to 475 °C and 10.3 MPa in supercritical benzene. The solution-grown Cu3Si nanowire arrays serve dual functions as field emitters and anti-reflective layers, which are reported on copper silicide materials for the first time. Cu3Si nanowires exhibit superior field-emission properties, with a turn-on-voltage as low as 1.16 V μm(-1), an emission current density of 8 mA cm(-2) at 4.9 V μm(-1), and a field enhancement factor (β) of 1500. Cu3Si nanowire arrays appear black with optical absorption less than 5% between 400 and 800 nm with minimal reflectance, serving as highly efficient anti-reflective layers. Moreover, the Cu3Si nanowires could be grown on either rigid or flexible substrates (PI). This study shows that solution-phase silicide reactions are adaptable for high-quality silicide nanowire growth and demonstrates their promise towards fabrication of metal silicide-based devices.