Cu-Assisted Corrosion Conquers Irregularities in Mesoporous Si
Bandarenka H.V. Shapel A. Laputsko D. Dauletbekova A. Akilbekov A. Nurlan Z. Junisbekova D. Shapel U. Podelinska A. Neilande E. Popov A.I. Bocharov D.
November 2025Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)
Technologies
2025#13Issue 11
Metal-coated mesoporous PSi (mesoPSi) opens up disruptive perspectives for biosensing, which is primarily enabled by surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). Although the unique performance of SERS-active substrates based on metal-coated mesoPSi has already been praised, influence of defects in silicon wafer on its morphology has not been revealed. Defects lead to formation of spiral regions in mesoPSi with varying porosity, which affects SERS activity of the overlying metallic nanostructures. It limits the reliability of SERS analysis. Here, we investigate repeatability of morphology and SERS activity of silver particles on mesoPSi as a function of defects in parent silicon, which are induced by irregular dopant levels. We propose an original corrosion approach that has not yet been applied to control the morphology of silicon nanostructures in general and mesoPSi in particular. By replacing silicon nanocrystallites with sacrificial copper nanoparticles, we were able to eliminate the surface irreproducibility of mesoPSi. The copper-corrosion-modified porous silicon surface was shown to be a suitable substrate for reliable SERS-active substrates. In more detail, SERS-active substrate based on mesoPSi without a defective surface layer allowed for a more than 40% increase in the SERS-active surface area with a signal deviation of only 10 % compared to that with a defective layer.
corrosive deposition of copper , dopant level irregularities , mesoporous silicon , plasmonic coating , SERS-sensing
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Applied Plasmonics Laboratory, Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics, 6 Browka St., Minsk, 220013, Belarus
Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics, SUNY at Buffalo, 435 NSC, Buffalo, 14260, NY, United States
Faculty of Biology, Belarusian State University, 10 Kurchatov St., Minsk, 220045, Belarus
Department of Technical Physics, L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University, 2 Satpaeva St., Astana, 010000, Kazakhstan
Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia, 8 Ķengaraga St., Riga, LV-1063, Latvia
Institute of Physics, University of Tartu, 1 W. Ostwaldi, St., Tartu, 50411, Estonia
Applied Plasmonics Laboratory
Institute for Lasers
Faculty of Biology
Department of Technical Physics
Institute of Solid State Physics
Institute of Physics
10 лет помогаем публиковать статьи Международный издатель
Книга Публикация научной статьи Волощук 2026 Book Publication of a scientific article 2026