Assembling Photoluminescent
Silicon Nanocrystals into
Periodic Mesoporous Organosilica
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Abstract
A contemporary question in the intensely active field
of periodic
mesoporous organosilica (PMO) materials is how large a silsesquioxane
precursor can be self-assembled under template direction into the
pore walls of an ordered mesostructure. An answer to this question
is beginning to emerge with the ability to synthesize dendrimer, buckyball,
and polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane PMOs. In this paper, we further
expand the library of large-scale silsesquioxane precursors by demonstrating
that photoluminescent nanocrystalline silicon that has been surface-capped
with oligo(triethoxysilylethylene), denoted as ncSi:(CH<sub>2</sub>CH<sub>2</sub>Si(OEt)<sub>3</sub>)<sub><i>n</i></sub>H,
can be self-assembled into a photoluminescent nanocrystalline silicon
periodic mesoporous organosilica (ncSi-PMO). A comprehensive multianalytical
characterization of the structural and optical properties of ncSi-PMO
demonstrates that the material gainfully combines the photoluminescent
properties of nanocrystalline silicon with the porous structure of
the PMO. This integration of two functional components makes ncSi-PMO
a promising multifunctional material for optoelectronic and biomedical
applications