Effect of different etching times on the structural, morphological, electrical, and antimicrobial properties of mesoporous silicon

P Sivaprakash; Raja Venkatesan; S Esakki Muthu; Mohammad Rafe Hatshan; Alexandre A Vetcher; Seong-Cheol Kim; Ikhyun Kim

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e23105

Effect of different etching times on the structural, morphological, electrical, and antimicrobial properties of mesoporous silicon

Heliyon. 2023 Dec 3;9(12):e23105. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e23105. eCollection 2023 Dec.

Authors

P Sivaprakash¹, Raja Venkatesan², S Esakki Muthu³, Mohammad Rafe Hatshan⁴, Alexandre A Vetcher⁵, Seong-Cheol Kim², Ikhyun Kim¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Keimyung University, Daegu, 42601, Republic of Korea.
² School of Chemical Engineering, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, 38541, Republic of Korea.
³ Centre for Materials Science, Department of Physics, Karpagam Academy of Higher Education, Coimbatore, 641021, India.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Institute of Biochemical Technology and Nanotechnology, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (RUDN), 6 Miklukho-Maklaya St., 117198 Moscow, Russia.

Abstract

The present work focuses on the structural, morphological, electrical characteristics, and antibacterial activity of mesoporous silicon (PS) against S. aureus and E. coli. We depict the structural and antimicrobial activity of PS as a result of different etching times (10.0, 20.0, 30.0, 40.0, 50.0, and 60.0 min) with a current density of 100 mA/cm². The structural and morphological characteristics of synthesized PS have been examined with Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM). FTIR spectra have been used to confirmed the Si-O, Si-O-Si bond and the adsorption on the surface of PS nanoparticles. The formation of pores on the c-Si wafer results in an analysis of a photoluminescence (PL) band at 712 nm, which changes with etching time in a process similar to current density. The correlation exist among etching times and the ideality factor (η) and barrier height (ф_b). Gram-positive (S. aureus) and Gram-negative (E. coli) bacteria showed enhanced antimicrobial activity against the PS nanoparticles. The synthesized of PS has been shown with good electrical and antimicrobial activities.

Keywords: Antimicrobial activity; Electrical properties; FTIR; Porous silicon nanoparticles (PS); SEM; XRD.