A Comparison of Pt/Si and Pt₃Cu/Si Schottky nano-heterojunctions: enhanced direct methanol energy converter based on non-adiabatic system and molecular adsorption

In order to utilize the miniaturization exothermic oxidation of methanol in the microelectronic device as an energy source rather than industrial waste, nano-heterojunctions between Si and 20 nm ultra-thin catalyst Pt₃Cu or Pt film were fabricated to investigate the energy conversion of methanol in this study. Methanol was catalyzed by Pt₃Cu or Pt to release energy, then electrons were excited and passed through the Schottky barrier of Pt₃Cu/Si or Pt/Si, which were calculated to be 0.43 and 0.80 eV, respectively. Thereupon, hot electron current was formed in a ballistic transport mode. Pt₃Cu, Pt and Si have good high temperature stability. Pt₃Cu has a higher crystallinity and better electronic structure than Pt and is dominated by (111) crystal orientation. Thus, Pt₃Cu has higher catalytic activity and stronger ability to overcome the toxicity of CO, making it easier to obtain stable hot electron current. The factors that affect the hot electron current are varied from chemical reaction rate to Au electrode structure with the increase of temperature. This work is likely to provide a new reference to enhance the methanol’s direct conversion effectively with a stable current in the solid-state way at different temperature. Herein we report for the first time achieving methanol as hot electron energy source. Therefore, the maximum utilization of energy could be realized by turning waste methanol into treasure.