Systematic Degradation Rate Analysis of Surface-Functionalized Porous Silicon Nanoparticles.

Rae Kang,Junho Hur,Jinyoung Kang,Sangrim Kang,Seo Lee,Dokyoung Kim

doi:10.3390/ma12040580

Abstract

Porous silicon nanoparticles (pSiNPs) have been utilized within a wide spectrum of biological studies, as well as in chemistry, chemical biology, and biomedical fields. Recently, pSiNPs have been constantly coming under the spotlight, mostly in biomedical applications, due to their advantages, such as controlled-release drug delivery in vivo by hydrolysis-induced degradation, self-reporting property through long life-time photoluminescence, high loading efficiency of substrate into pore, and the homing to specific cells/organ/bacteria by surface functionalization. However, the systematic degradation rate analysis of surface-functionalized pSiNPs in different biological media has not been conducted yet. In this paper, we prepared four different surface-functionalized pSiNPs samples and analyzed the degradation rate in six different media (DI H2O (deionized water), PBS (phosphate-buffered saline), HS (human serum), DMEM (Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium), LB (lysogeny broth), and BHI (brain heart infusion)). The obtained results will now contribute to understanding the correlation between surface functionalization in the pSiNPs and the degradation rate in different biological media. The characterized data with the author’s suggestions will provide useful insights in designing the new pSiNPs formulation for biomedical applications.

Highlights

Porous silicon is an inorganic silicon material that has nano-sized pores in its microstructure.Since its discovered in the mid-1950s, pSi has been applied within various research fields and industries
The main focus of this paper is to provide basic information on the effects between the surface functionalization of porous silicon nanoparticles (pSiNPs) and their degradation rate under different environments
Chemical reaction and centrifugation were performed in an open-air environment at room temperature (25 ◦ C)

Summary

Introduction

Porous silicon (pSi) is an inorganic silicon material that has nano-sized pores in its microstructure. Since its discovered in the mid-1950s, pSi has been applied within various research fields and industries. Porous silicon can be prepared by the electrochemical etching method, using crystalline silicon wafer in hydrofluoric acid (HF) containing electrolytes [2,3]. In an electrochemical reaction with two electrodes, the silicon elements in the wafer are dissolved out into ionic forms, such as tetrafluorosilane (SiF4 ), hexafluorosilane (SiF6 2− ), and the resulting wafer have pores on the surface [3]. The pore diameter, porosity, and wall thickness can all be controlled by fabrication parameters; current density, wafer type (dopant type/density), composition of electrolyte, and others [4].

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Results

Conclusion