Silver particles are dispersed on silicon by magnetron sputtering and post-annealing to investigate the catalytic effects of individual silver particles on wet etching of silicon surface. According to scanning electron microscopy, dispersed deep holes are present and the major etching direction is vertical to the surface of a Si(100) wafer or inclined to that on a Si(111) wafer. Our experiments indicate that the effect of the anisotropy of Si on directional etching is fundamental and the wafer resistivity and experimental process have important influence on the etching results. In addition, aggregation of silver particles and random horizontal etching on the surface of the wafer are caused by the local imbalance between the oxidant and HF. Our results enable better understanding of the catalytic effects of metal particles on silicon and are helpful to the preparation new silicon nanostructures. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.