Silicon nanoparticles of three types (oxide-terminated silicon nanospheres, micron-sized hydrogen-terminated porous silicon grains and micron-size oxide-terminated porous silicon grains) were incorporated into silica aerogels at the gel preparation stage. Samples with a wide range of concentrations were prepared, resulting in aerogels that were translucent (but weakly coloured) through to compl...

The use of mesoporous silicon particles for drug delivery has been widely explored thanks to their biodegradability and biocompatibility. The ability to tailor the physicochemical properties of porous silicon at the micro- and nanoscale confers versatility to this material. A method for the fabrication of highly reproducible, monodisperse, mesoporous silicon particles with controlled physical c...

Silicon-based lithium ion battery anodes are attracting significant attention because of silicon's exceptionally high lithium capacity. However, silicon's large volume change during cycling generally leads to anode pulverization unless the silicon is dispersed throughout a matrix in nanoparticulate form. Because pulverization results in a loss of electric connectivity, the reversible capacity o...

The importance of silicon photonic devices extends beyond passive structures for light guiding and light emission. Nanoand microstructured silicon photonic devices have emerged as viable gas, chemical, and biological sensors. The advantages of these silicon-based optical biosensors for high sensitivity detection include a low analyte volume requirement, reduced size, and compatibility with exis...

Silicon-based. light-emitting devices (LED's) should find numerous uses in optoelectronics. For example, the integration of silicon LED's with silicon microelectronics could lead to reliable and inexpensive optical displays and optical interconnects. Until recently, however, it had not been possible to obtain efficient room-temperature luminescence from silicon. The demonstration in 1990 that a...

The longwave phenomenological model is used to make simple and precise calculations of various physical quantities such as the vibrational energy density, the vibrational energy, the relative mechanical displacement, and the one-dimensional stress tensor of a porous silicon distributed Bragg reflector. From general principles such as invariance under time reversal, invariance under space reflec...