Fabrication of well-ordered silicon nanopillars embedded in a microchannel : Via metal-assisted chemical etching: A route towards an opto-mechanical biosensor
Solís Tinoco, Verónica Iraís (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia)
Márquez, Salomón (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia)
Sepúlveda, Borja (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia)
Lechuga, Laura M (Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia)

Date:	2016
Abstract:	Ordered nanopillars have been used as a smart configuration to design and fabricate localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) sensors. Importantly, these nanostructures can be integrated within microfluidic channels as a novel opportunity to enhance the response of biosensors and also to control the fluid flow by modifying the wettability surface of the walls. In this work, we demonstrate a large-scale and low-cost nanofabrication methodology that integrates the fabrication of silicon nanopillars (SiNPs) inside a microfluidic channel. The strategy is based on placing a catalytic gold layer patterned with nanoholes inside a SU-8 microchannel, by combining nanosphere lithography, reactive ion etching, and e-beam gold deposition, to control the area, separation distance and diameter of the nanostructures. The height of the SiNPs strongly depends on a well-controlled metal-assisted silicon etching protocol. We demonstrate experimentally that the design and the cleaning of the catalytic gold mesh using ultraviolet ozone strongly affect the etching rate for the formation of large-surface-area nanopillars. Our results explain the fast fabrication of hexagonal arrays of SiNPs embedded in a microfluidic channel with varying aspect ratio from 2 to 7 and separation of 300 nm and 400 nm, respectively, which has important implications for the achievement of new optomechanical biosensors.
Grants:	Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2014/SGR-624 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad SEV-2013-0295 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad FIS2013-49280-EXP Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad MAT2011-12645-E
Rights:	Tots els drets reservats.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió acceptada per publicar
Subject:	Large surface area ; Localized surface plasmon resonance ; Metal-assisted chemical etching ; Microfluidic channel ; Nano Sphere Lithography ; Separation distances ; Silicon nanopillars ; Ultraviolet-ozone
Published in:	RSC advances, Vol. 6, Issue 88 (2016) , p. 85666-85674, ISSN 2046-2069

DOI: 10.1039/c6ra15485a

Postprint 11 p, 773.1 KB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles