Replacing Metals with Oxides in Metal-Assisted Chemical Etching Enables Direct Fabrication of Silicon Nanowires by Solution Processing

Metal-assisted chemical etching (MACE) has emerged as an effective method to fabricate high aspect ratio nanostructures. This requires a catalytic mask that is generally composed of metal. Here, we challenge the general view catalyst needs be metal by introducing oxide-assisted (OACE). We perform with oxides such RuO2 and IrO2 transposing materials used in electrocatalysis nanofabrication. These can solution-processed polymers exhibiting similar capabilities metals for MACE. Nanopatterned obtained direct nanoimprint lithography or block-copolymer from solution on large scale. High silicon nanostructures were at sub-20 nm scale exclusively cost-effective processing halving number fabrication steps compared In general, OACE expected stimulate new fundamental research assisted other materials, providing possibilities device fabrication.