Versatile
Particle-Based Route to Engineer Vertically Aligned Silicon Nanowire
Arrays and Nanoscale Pores
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Abstract
Control
over particle self-assembly is a prerequisite for the colloidal templating
of lithographical etching masks to define nanostructures. This work
integrates and combines for the first time bottom-up and top-down
approaches, namely, particle self-assembly at liquid–liquid
interfaces and metal-assisted chemical etching, to generate vertically
aligned silicon nanowire (VA-SiNW) arrays and, alternatively, arrays
of nanoscale pores in a silicon wafer. Of particular importance, and
in contrast to current techniques, including conventional colloidal
lithography, this approach provides excellent control over the nanowire
or pore etching site locations and decouples nanowire or pore diameter
and spacing. The spacing between pores or nanowires is tuned by adjusting
the specific area of the particles at the liquid–liquid interface
before deposition. Hence, the process enables fast and low-cost fabrication
of ordered nanostructures in silicon and can be easily scaled up.
We demonstrate that the fabricated VA-SiNW arrays can be used as in
vitro transfection platforms for transfecting human primary cells