Semiconductor electrodeposition from ionic liquids

Ionic Liquids show extraordinarily characteristics, such as low vapor pressures, high chemical and thermal stability as well as wide electrochemical windows. As the electrolytes, semiconductors can be obtained from electrodeposition, which aqueous and other organic solution could not work either. Electrodepostion in ionic liquid is simple and controllable for the morphology and grain size of deposit. So it is of great importance for the preparation of nano-semiconductor materials. In this paper, we introduce some advantages of ionic liquids and electrodeposition of semiconductor from ionic liquis, including elemental semicondutors film (Si, Ge, Te, grey Se, etc.), Si, Ge nanowire and semiconductor compounds with direct band gap (GaAs, InSb, ZnTe, etc.). Finally, we mention new method to prepare Si, Ge nanowire by electrodeposition from ionic liquid with template method and also get photonic crystal with colloidal crystal self-assembly template, therefore, the completed photonic band gap (PBG) can be a promising.