Nature of the silicon-animal cell interface

The paper reports the results of the study of cell culture growth at the su rface of porous silicon. They show that porous and poly(nano)crystalline Si offer significant advantages over bulk Si surfaces for cell adherence and viability: these materials do not require coating with substances such as p olylysine to support cell growth; porous Si is light-addressable because of photoluminescence and photovoltaic effects noted [Unal and Bayliss, J. App l. Phys. 80, 3532 (1996)], allowing the potential for optical data transfer and less susceptibility to interference from external electronic equipment ; finally nanostructured coatings can be applied to most object shapes, giv ing flexibility in their application.