Hollow silicon microstructures for biomedical applications

Abstract

Traditional gas sensors and biosensors based on metal oxide micro- and nanostructures, which are widely investigated in the past decades, have very high electrical resistivity (in range of MΩ – TΩ). Such high resistivity is usually measured in laboratory conditions with special high-cost measurement units or equipment. Thus, such sensors are complicated to integrate into electronic biomedical devices or complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) systems, and needs high-cost amplifiers with very high input impedance. In this context, silicon (Si) materials which play a central role in semiconductor industry , by rational controlling of morphology and physicochemical properties can be easily integrated in gas sensors and biosensors devices. Recently Adelungs’ group demonstrated a novel method to synthesize hollow three-dimensional (3-D) aero-silicon microstructures, which demonstrated excellent potential for the development of biomedical applications.