Porous Silicon - A Modern Nanostructured Material

Abstract

Porous silicon is a complex material with surprising physical and chemical properties as compared to crystalline silicon. Basic properties of porous silicon and characterization methods methods used in last two decades are review.

Surface fuctionalization substantially extends application potential of porous silicon; applications in optoelectronics, chemosensors and medicine are presented.

Keywords

• porous silicon
• nanocrystalline silicon
• quantum confinement effect
• photoluminescence
• functionalization of silicon-based materials
• chemosensors
• molecular recognition
• biocompatibility