Synthesis and characterization of ordered mesoporous silica nanoparticles with tunable physical properties by varying molar composition of reagents

Abstract

Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN) with tunable physical and surface properties would find application in various biotechnological and biomedical fields. In this study, a series of MSN with varied physical properties were synthesized via liquid crystal templating (LCT) mechanism by varying the molar concentrations of the reagents. Characterization of the prepared materials was done by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), nitrogen adsorption/desorption isotherms, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectroscopy, thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential thermal analysis (DTA). The particle sizes, Barrett-Joyner-Halenda (BJH) pore sizes, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface areas and BJH total pore volume were tuned between 50 to 900 nm, 2.4 to 4.4 nm, 589 to 1163 m 2 g-1 and 0.61 to 0.83 cm 3 g-1 , respectively. The effects of reagents concentrations in the variation of the properties were discussed. The study demonstrated the versatility of the liquid-based synthesis method in the preparation of MSN with different physical properties.

The Analysis of Hierarchical Structure of Mesoporous Silica in Nanometer Scale by Small Angle Scattering Method

“…11 show a complete structural information about the particle pores, sub-particles, bulk particles, and the aggregations that certainly occured in the formation of mesoporous silica materials. Combinations of several methods of materials characterizations such as small angle scattering (SAS) of neutron or X-ray [6,7,9], electron microscopy [8], X-ray diffraction in low angle [4] and nitrogen adsorption have entirely demonstrated a powerful tool in obtaining the hierarchical structures of mesoporous materials.…”

“…Several methods have been applied to  Corresponding author. E-mail address: giri@batan.go.id DOI: https://doi.org/10.17146/aij.2018.848 synthesize mesoporous silica materials to obtain a tuneable and controllable pore structures or highly ordered pore structures [4,5] such as by using conventional sol-gel processes, liquid crystal templating method, or by nanocasting strategy [5].…”

“…To obtain such information as the mechanism of formation of the mesoporous silica structure, characterization methods that can be used to observe the structural changes during the formation of 1 mesoporous silica materials are certainly needed. Several methods of characterization such as X-ray diffraction [4], small angle scattering (SAS) of neutron or X-ray [6][7][8], electron microscopy [9], and transmission electron micrographs [10], can be used for this purpose. The structure of the material could be observed using diffraction method whereas surface morphology could be observed using electron microscopy method.…”

A study of some fundamental physicochemical variables on the morphology of mesoporous silica nanoparticles MCM-41 type

“…Although precise control to obtain spherical MCM-41 monodispersed nanoparticles has been already claimed in some reports (Barrabino 2011;Chen et al 2012;Lv et al 2016;Wanyika et al 2011), reproducibility of results and comparison of product characteristics may be considered a critical factor of study. MSN synthesis is still far from being completely understood, since there are so many variables that must be taken into account, not all of them have been carefully studied, and some of them are often omitted.…”

“…Besides, there is no agreement on the optimal conditions to achieve a specific morphology. For example, some studies have analyzed systematically the influence of variables affecting MCM-41 morphology, such as: alkoxysilane precursor (Huh et al 2003), surfactant type (Ikari et al 2006;Morishige et al 1997) and surfactant concentration (Cai et al 2001;Lelong et al 2008;Shi et al 2010), molar ratio of reactants (Bastos et al 2011;Cai et al 2001;Manzano et al 2008;Wanyika et al 2011), temperature and catalyst concentration (Chen et al 2012), and other synthesis procedures (Guo et al 2013;Qu et al 2006). But particularly, there are three variables of utmost importance that are not usually reported.…”