Electrodeposition of Si from an Ionic Liquid Bath at Room Temperature in the Presence of Water.

The electrochemical deposition of Si has been carried out in an ionic liquid medium in the presence of water in a limited dry nitrogen environment on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) at room temperature. It has been found that the presence of water in ionic liquids does not affect the available effective potential window to a large extent. Silicon has been successfully deposited electrochemically in the overpotential regime in two different ionic liquids, namely, BMImTf2N and BMImPF6, in the presence of water. Although a Si thin film has been obtained from BMImTf2N; only distinguished Si crystals protected in ionic liquid droplets have been observed from BMImPF6. The most important observation of the present investigation is that the Si precursor, SiCl4, instead of undergoing hydrolysis, even in the presence of water, coexisted with ionic liquids, and elemental Si has been successfully electrodeposited.