[1][2] Experimental cells using a room-temperature ionic liquid electrolytes have produced between 1 and 1.2 volts at a current density of 0.3 milliamperes per square centimeter of silicon.
[4] Eli's reasoning for using silicon as a fuel cell is because of its high specific energy, its large availability as a resource (silicon being the eighth most plentiful in the universe, the second most plentiful in Earth's crust), tolerance of places with high humidity, and non-toxic properties.
In its idle state, the RTIL dissolves the wafers at a slow rate because there is no semi-conductor to speed up the reaction.
The Stressed Pillar-Engineered CMOS Technology Readied for Evanescence (SPECTRE) is under research by DARPA and SRI.
[11] One particularly promising field of application for silicon–air batteries is powering small-scale medical devices such as diabetic pumps and hearing aids, in which tedious charging would be a disadvantage.
[5] The nature of the silicon-air battery also renders it particularly suitable for humid climates such as in tropical regions of Asia, America or Africa.