Silicon has not been used in LED fabrication because of its very low luminescence efficiency. There has been a great deal of interest in porous silicon, a form of silicon which luminesces at about 680 nm. The origin of this luminescence is controversial and several theories involving surface compounds and quantum confinement models have been developed to explain it. Porous silicon is easily made and its photo- and electroluminescence are easily demonstrated in the classroom. It provides an easily demonstrated example of key concepts in semiconductor chemistry.
More Information
Citation
Swisher, Ron; Richmond, G. L.; Sercel, Peter C. J. Chem. Educ.1996 73 738.
Our Secondary School editors work hard to distill all the JCE materials to produce a fraction of particular interest to high school teachers. We call it CLIC.
In recent years we have worked hard to better match our advertisers with our readers. When shopping for chemistry education materials, visit our advertisers' WWW sites first.
Take JCE along on your outreach missions. Copies of the Journal, guest access to JCE Online, our publications catalog, and more are available for your participants.