Assembling photoluminescent silicon nanocrystals into periodic mesoporous organosilica
Author(s)
Date
2012Source Title
Journal of the American Chemical Society
Print ISSN
0002-7863
Electronic ISSN
1520-5126
Publisher
American Chemical Society
Volume
134
Issue
20
Pages
8439 - 8446
Language
English
Type
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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:(CH2CH2Si(OEt)3)nH, 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.