Kinetics of Plasmon-Driven Hydrosilylation of Silicon Surfaces: Photogenerated Charges Drive Silicon- Carbon Bond Formation

Optically transparent PDMS stamps coated with a layer of gold nanoparticles were employed as plasmonic stamps to drive surface chemistry on silicon surfaces. Illumination of a sandwich of plasmonic stamps, an alkene ink, and hydride-terminated silicon with green light of moderate intensity drives hydrosilylation on the surface. The key to the mechanism of the hydrosilylation is the presence of holes at the Si-H-terminated interface, which is followed by attack by a proximal alkene and formation of the silicon-carbon bond. In this work, detailed kinetic studies of the hydrosilylation on silicon with different doping levels, n++, p++, n, p, and intrinsic were carried out to provide further insight into the role of the metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) junction that is set up during the stamping.