Large-scale synthesis of ultrafine Si nanoparticles by ball milling

Si nanoparticles have been synthesized by ball-milling of graphite and SiO₂ powders. The solid-phase reaction, C(graphite)+SiO₂→Si+CO₂, was found to be a novel technique for fabrication of ultrafine Si particles. The reduced Si in the powder assembled as nanoparticles with a wide range of diameters. Multiple-peak structures were observed in the photoluminescence spectra of the Si nanoparticles at room temperature. The peak energies were found to coincide with the PL peak pinning energies previously reported in porous Si. Thus, the fine structures of luminescence spectra could be attributed to the size quantization of the Si nanoparticles formed via solid-phase reaction during ball-milling.