Chemical Etching of Silicon Assisted by Graphene Oxide in an HF-HNO3 Solution and Its Catalytic Mechanism

Chemical etching of silicon assisted by various types of carbon materials is drawing much attention for the fabrication of silicon micro/nanostructures. We developed a method of chemical etching of silicon that utilizes graphene oxide (GO) sheets to promote the etching reaction in a hydrofluoric acid-nitric acid (HF-HNO3) etchant. By using an optimized composition of the HF-HNO3 etchant, the etching rate under the GO sheets was 100 times faster than that of our HF-H2O2 system used in a previous report. Kinetic analyses showed that the activation energy of the etching reaction was almost the same at both the bare silicon and GO-covered areas. We propose that adsorption sites for the reactant in the GO sheets enhance the reaction frequency, leading to a deeper etching in the GO areas than the bare areas. Furthermore, GO sheets with more defects were found to have higher catalytic activities. This suggests that defects in the GO sheets function as adsorption sites for the reactant, thereby enhancing the etching rate under the sheets.

Automated summary

The use of graphene oxide (GO) sheets in the chemical etching of silicon has been shown to significantly increase the etching rate, up to 100 times faster than traditional systems. The presence of defects in the GO sheets enhances the catalytic activity, promoting a deeper etching in the areas covered by the sheets.