Table 1 SiNWs/SiNWs micro-ultracapacitors surface capacitances obtained from the galvanostatic charge/discharge (Formula 2) at 5 and 10 μA cm −2 SiNWs length (μm) j = 5μA cm−2 j = 10μA cm−2 C (μF cm−2) C (i μm)/C (5 μm) C (μF

cm−2) C (i μm)/C (5 μm) 5 3.6   3.5   10 7.2 2.0 6.7 1.9 20 9.7 2.7 9.5 2.7 Formula 1 with Δj as the current density differences inside the cyclic voltammetry curve and v as the scan rate. Formula 2 with j the current density used for the galvanostatic charge/discharge. Devices with the same SiNWs length show similar capacitance values for both current densities. As noticed on the curves, capacitance increases with SiNWs length. This increase is proportional to the length increase between 5 (≈3.5 μF cm−2) and 10 μm SiNWs (≈7 μF cm−2), but not between 5 and 20 μm (≈9.5 μF www.selleckchem.com/products/ly3023414.html cm−2). This can be explained by selleck chemical accessible surface losses due to SiNWs constriction when substrates are stacked together. New devices avoiding this constriction will be designed and evaluated. Although previous works on the use of silicon-based electrodes selleck chemicals for supercapacitor [10–15] reported better capacitance values, the SiNWs length influence in two electrodes devices has never been investigated. Moreover, it could be improved up to the capacitance wanted by increasing the SiNWs length and density and by improving the device design. In fact, SiNWs growth by CVD

enables to tune the NWs lengths without any limitation. Choi et Loperamide al. [10] reported the use of porous SiNWs as electrode for supercapacitor in such devices but with Li+ containing electrolyte. Their capacitance is expressed only in force per gram, so no accurate comparison with our results is possible. Desplobain et al. [12]

have obtained devices with 320 μF cm−2 capacitance by using gold-coated porous silicon but in aqueous electrolyte. SiNWs coated with NiO [13, 14] or SiC [15] shows promising performances and cycling ability, but silicon is not the active material and their performances have not been evaluated in the two electrodes devices. After 250 cycles at ±5 μA cm−2, each device shows less than 2% capacitance loss (1.8% for 20-μm SiNWs, 0.5% for 10-μm SiNWs, 0.7% for 5-μm SiNWs, and 0.5% for bulk silicon) (Figure 3). Whatever the length, SiNWs are stable after these cycling experiments, as observed on post-experimental SEM images (Figure 4). The top bending that can be observed is due to electrostatic forces occurring during the sample washing with organic solvents before the SEM observation. Due to the moderate surface capacitance, 20-μm SiNWs-based microdevice only stores 5 μJ cm−2, i.e., few milliwatts per square centimeter. However, the interest of the device is more directed toward the power density which reaches 1.4 mWcm−2, which is close to the one of the 5-μm thick activated carbon supercapacitor (5 mW cm−2) [7].