A facile cooling strategy for the preparation of silica nanoparticles with rough surface utilizing a modified Stöber system

  • Jiaqiong Xu
  • , Dongfang Ren
  • , Ning Chen
  • , Xiaofeng Li
  • , Zixin Ye
  • , Shiyu Ma*
  • , Qiming Chen
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

23 Scopus citations

Abstract

The well-known Stöber method has been widely used to synthesize dense silica particles with smooth surface, however, the preparation of silica nanoparticles with rough surface (RS-SiO2 NPs) based on Stöber system via a facile one-pot method has not been achieved. Herein, a modified Stöber system (i.e., a specific ternary tetraethyloxysilane (TEOS)/ethanol (EtOH)-water (H2O) with a precise molar ratio of 1: 45.8: 124) is used to prepare the primary SiO2 NPs with low-condensed silica shell (LCSS) and unreacted TEOS. Subsequently, via a simple one-step cooling treatment, the RS-SiO2 NPs with spherical morphology (177 nm), large specific surface area (85 m2 g−1) and controllable density were successfully prepared. Various experimental conditions, such as pre-reaction time (reaction time of primary SiO2 NPs at room temperature before cooling treatment), cooling temperature (cooling treatment temperature) and ammonia solution concentration were studied. The results show that the migration rate of the unreacted TEOS in the primary SiO2 NPs plays an important role in the formation of RS-SiO2 NPs. This paper also provides us with a new idea to further understand the formation mechanism of SiO2 particles by the Stöber method. The RS-SiO2 NPs loaded with gold nanoparticles can effectively reduce 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol.

Original languageEnglish
Article number126845
JournalColloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects
Volume625
DOIs
StatePublished - 20 Sep 2021

Keywords

  • Migration rate
  • Regulating reaction temperatures
  • Surface-rough SiO NPs
  • Surfactant-free
  • Ternary TEOS/EtOH-HO system

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