Semiconducting silicon nanowires and nanowire composites for biosensing and therapy

Over the past two decades, significant research effort has been directed toward the synthesis and characterization of silicon nanowires. Because of their many advantageous properties, these nanowires have emerged as promising materials for both sensing and biosensing applications. This chapter provides an up-to-date overview of the fabrication routes of silicon nanowires, two-dimensional silicon nanowire arrays, and their application as biosensing platforms. In addition, we present recent progress on the design and fabrication of silicon nanowire-polymer composites and some new exciting biomedical-relevant applications, which we believe have the potential to be developed and adapted in future biosensing platforms.