Stain Etched Nanostructured Porous Silicon: The Role of Morphology on Antibacterial Drug Loading and Release

In this work, nanostructured porous silicon (pSi) prepared by a metal-assisted stain etched route is investigated for its ability to act as a carrier for sustained delivery of the antibacterial drug triclosan. The morphology, analyzed by transmission electron microscopy, reveals a rather different microstructure than traditional anodized porous silicon; as a consequence, such morphology manifests a different loaded drug crystallinity, triclosan release behavior, and associated antibacterial activity versus Staphococcus aureus relative to high porosity anodized porous silicon. In addition to electron microscopies and antibacterial disk diffusion assays, a combination of x-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analyses, and UV/Vis spectrophotometric analysis of triclosan release are employed to carry out the above investigations.