A new route to the surface functionalisation of porous silicon

Hybrid organic–inorganic porous semiconductor transducer for multi-parameters sensing

“…Standard PSi passivation strategies are mostly based on thermal oxidation or wet chemistry: the best results, in terms of chemical stability, have been obtained by silanization and hydrothermal carbonization [18,19]. In the past, dry technologies have been scarcely used: few attempts have been made in PSi surface modification using evaporation or plasma deposition [20], as it is not straightforward obtaining uniform coverage of a complex surface such as disordered microporous silicon. Recently, chemical vapour deposition and plasma deposition of polymers in mesoporous silicon matrices have been successfully reported [21,22]: this is a new route, really attractive from the technological point of view, for adding new sensing features to optical transducers.…”

Progress of porous silicon APTES-functionalization by FTIR investigations

“…3(b)) subsequent to 1 h of immersion of PS in hydrolyzed APTES solution. The freshly prepared PS layer is covered by the well known silicon hydrogen species peaking around 2100 cm −1 (SiH x , x = 1-3) [22].…”

Functionalization control of porous silicon optical structures using reflectance spectra modeling for biosensing applications

“…Among many sensing application fields, PS is largely used as a good matrix for biosensors thanks to its biocompatibility and its capacity to immobilize a large number of biomolecules [3]. In freshly etched structures, the internal surface of PS is essentially constituted of SiH, SiH 2 and SiH 3 groups [12]. This surface is hydrophobic and unstable for a use in aqueous media.…”