Fabrication and Characterization of Light Emitting Porous Silicon and Polymer Nanocomposites

We report the fabrication of nanocomposites by the infiltration of polymers into porous silicon. Polymers such as polyamide, polystyrene, PMMA, and PVC were chosen because they are commonly available and have been extensively studied. The pore-filling was accomplished by either diffusion of the polymer molecules into porous silicon or in-situ polymerization of the monomer. The Vickers hardness arid the thermal conductivity of the samples were measured. There was a difference in the nanocomposite characteristics depending on whether the samples were as-anodized or had been annealed in oxygen. By infiltrating polyamide into an as-anodized sample, a 42% increase in hardness and a 24% increase in thermal conductivity were observed at room temperature, without any degradation of luminescence.