Silicon-based polymers, exploring

Finally, silicon-based polymers, especially with hydrogen lateral groups, are very interesting, but they are not yet explored sufficiently. There are many unknown properties in these materials, including the details of the photopolymerization process and a-Si formation from polysilane. Additional academic work in this field is expected and necessary to make the solution processing of silicon devices more convenient and reliable. 

To explore the enzymatic dioxygenation of aryl silane substrates, a small library of 26 silanes representing several structural classes was obtained from commercial sources. Compounds were selected based upon our desire to produce products that could be further elaborated to polymers, or that would contain chiral silicon atoms. Examples included silanes bearing alkoxy, vinyl and hydrido substituents, in addition to a number of diphenylsilanes. Several whole cell biocatalysts were selected for the study, summarized in Table 1. 

Although this method was developed initially for macroscale structures, it has become common to see it applied to micro- and nanosensors (Quinn et al 2006). Though, as these devices range in sizes at the sub-100 pm level, many are based on a silicon material system. Nonetheless, new materials and techniques driven by the ability to perform precision engineering are being explored and developed (Qian and Zhao, 2002). Today, materials from different types, from metals to ceramics, polymers or composites, may have suitable attributes to be applied into micro- and nanosensors. 

---