Biological passivation of porous silicon by a self-assembled nanometric biofilm of proteins

Self-assembled monolayers are surfaces consisting of a single layer of molecules on a substrate: widespread examples of chemical and biological nature are alkylsiloxane, fatty acids, and alkanethiolate which can be deposited by different techniques on a large variety of substrates ranging from metals to oxides. We have found that a self-assembled biofilm of proteins can passivate porous silicon (PSi) based optical structures without affecting the transducing properties. Moreover, the protein coated PSi layer can also be used as a functionalized surface for proteomic applications.