Size Control of Porous Silicon Nanoparticles by Electrochemical Perforation Etching

Size‐controlled porous silicon‐based nanoparticles are prepared by pulsed electrochemical etching of single crystal silicon wafers, followed by ultrasonic fracture of the freestanding porous layer. When high‐current density pulses are applied periodically during the porous layer etching process, a porous multilayer results in which porous layers are separated by thin layers of much higher porosity. Ultrasonic fracture selectively cleaves the porous film along these high‐porosity perforations, providing greater size control and improved yields (by 5x) of the resulting porous nanoparticles. The effect of pulse width and repetition rate is systematically studied: tunability of the average nanoparticle size in the range 160–350 nm is demonstrated.