Silicon Nanoparticles: Are They Crystalline from the Core to the Surface?

Silicon nanoparticles (SiNPs) are biologically compatible, metal-free quantum dots that exhibit size and surface tailorable photoluminescence. The nanostructure of these materials influences their optical, chemical, and material properties and hence plays an important role in their future-generation applications in sensors, battery electrodes, optical materials, and contrast agents, among others. In this work, we employ a complement of methods including X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), bright-field transmission electron microscopy (TEM), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and 29Si solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to interrogate the bulk structure of hydride-terminated SiNPs (H-SiNPs) ranging from 3 to 64 nm in diameter and effectively probe their surface. By applying these methods, we have demonstrated that H-SiNPs consist of a size dependent layered structure made up of surface, subsurface, and core silicon regimes. The surface silicon...