title: Nanostructured porous silicon: the winding road from photonics to cell scaffolds - a review.
abstract: For over 20 years, nanostructured porous silicon (nanoPS) has found a vast number of applications in the broad fields of photonics and optoelectronics, triggered by the discovery of its photoluminescent behavior in 1990. Besides, its biocompatibility, biodegradability, and bioresorbability make porous silicon (PSi) an appealing biomaterial. These properties are largely a consequence of its particular susceptibility to oxidation, leading to the formation of silicon oxide, which is readily dissolved by body fluids. This paper reviews the evolution of the applications of PSi and nanoPS from photonics through biophotonics, to their use as cell scaffolds, whether as an implantable substitute biomaterial, mainly for bony and ophthalmological tissues, or as an in vitro cell conditioning support, especially for pluripotent cells. For any of these applications, PSi/nanoPS can be used directly after synthesis from Si wafers, upon appropriate surface modification processes, or as a composite biomaterial. Unedited studies of fluorescently active PSi structures for cell culture are brought to evidence the margin for new developments.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física Aplicada, Instituto de Física Gleb Wataghin, Universidade Estadual de Campinas , Campinas , Brazil ; Departamento de Física Aplicada, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid , Madrid , Spain.
authors.forename: Jacobo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hernández-Montelongo
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid-CSIC, Spanish CRG Beamline at ESRF , Grenoble , France.
authors.forename: Alvaro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Muñoz-Noval
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biología Molecular, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid , Madrid , Spain.
authors.forename: Josefa Predestinación
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: García-Ruíz
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física Aplicada, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid , Madrid , Spain ; Centro de Micro-Análisis de Materiales, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid , Madrid , Spain.
authors.forename: Vicente
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Torres-Costa
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física Aplicada, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid , Madrid , Spain.
authors.forename: Raul J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Martín-Palma
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física Aplicada, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid , Madrid , Spain ; Instituto Nicolás Cabrera, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid , Madrid , Spain.
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Manso-Silván
keywords: biomaterial; cell culture; cell scaffold; nanostructure; optical properties; photonics; porous silicon; review