Porous Silicon as a Nanostructured Template for Enhanced Immobilization and Crystallization of Inorganic and Biomaterials

摘要

In the current paper, we review our experimental and theoretical results demonstrating enhanced immobilization and crystallization of inorganic and biological materials on porous silicon and present additional explanation of observed effects. The examples of experimental results on room-temperature crystallization of SiO_2 as well as of enhanced adhesion and crystallization of ceramic sol-gel derived films on porous silicon are shown. These phenomena have been observed at conditions which were insufficient for crystallization on flat silicon surfaces. The facilitation of crystallization on porous silicon is explained by surface fractality as well as by the decrease of potential barrier of nucleation related to the decrease of the critical nucleus volume at heterogeneous nucleation in pores.