Abstract
Pedagogical tools are needed that link multidisciplinary nanoscience and technology (NST) to multiple state-of-the-art applications, including those requiring new fabrication routes relying on green synthesis. These can both educate and motivate the next generation of entrepreneurial NST scientists to create innovative products whilst protecting the environment and resources. Nanoporous silicon shows promise as such a tool as it can be fabricated from plants and waste materials, but also embodies many key educational concepts and key industrial uses identified for NST. Specific mechanical, thermal, and optical properties become highly tunable through nanoporosity. We also describe exceptional properties for nanostructured silicon like medical biodegradability and efficient light emission that open up new functionality for this semiconductor. Examples of prior lecture courses and potential laboratory projects are provided, based on the author’s experiences in academic chemistry and physics departments in the USA and UK, together with industrial R&D in the medical, food, and consumer-care sectors. Nanoporous silicon-based lessons that engage students in the basics of entrepreneurship can also readily be identified, including idea generation, intellectual property, and clinical translation of nanomaterial products.
Highlights
If we take the chemical synthesis and properties of nanoparticles as an example, many papers in journals dedicated to teaching have provided introductions via short experiments aimed at undergraduates and even high school students [10,11,12,13,14]
This review emphasizes the range of educational opportunities across Nanoscale science and technology (NST) and green entrepreneurship afforded with studies of this material
We propose here that nanoporous silicon properties to be discussed in Section 3 can broaden the educational reach of silicon technology to include chemistry, biology, biomedical, and environmental science students
Summary
Useful matter, are used extensively and a few have enormous influence on how we live. If we take the chemical synthesis and properties of nanoparticles as an example, many papers in journals dedicated to teaching have provided introductions via short experiments aimed at undergraduates and even high school students [10,11,12,13,14]. Its educational potential for introducing the multidisciplinary nature of NST was first utilized in a university.
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