Regenerative Electroless Etching of Silicon

: Kurt W. Kolasinski, Nathan J. Gimbar, Haibo Yu, Mark Aindow, Ermei Mäkila, Jarno Salonen

Publisher: WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH

: 2017

: Angewandte Chemie International Edition

: ANGEWANDTE CHEMIE-INTERNATIONAL EDITION

: ANGEW CHEM INT EDIT

: 56

: 2

: 624

: 627

: 4

: 1433-7851

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201610162

Regenerative electroless etching (ReEtching), described herein for the first time, is a method of producing nanostructured semiconductors in which an oxidant (Ox(1)) is used as a catalytic agent to facilitate the reaction between a semiconductor and a second oxidant (Ox(2)) that would be unreactive in the primary reaction. Ox(2) is used to regenerate Ox(1), which is capable of initiating etching by injecting holes into the semiconductor valence band. Therefore, the extent of reaction is controlled by the amount of Ox(2) added, and the rate of reaction is controlled by the injection rate of Ox(2). This general strategy is demonstrated specifically for the production of highly luminescent, nanocrystalline porous Si from the reaction of V2O5 in HF(aq) as Ox(1) and H2O2(aq) as Ox(2) with Si powder and wafers.