Characterization of Silica Nanoparticles and Nanocolloid Synthesized in Acidic and Alkaline Media

Abstract

Nanosilica in known as one of the most widely used components in various industries. In the current study, silica nanoparticle/colloid were synthesized in acidic and alkaline media using sodium silicate as a precursor. The effect of synthesis parameters on the morphology of the obtained nanoparticles and the rheological properties of silica colloid were studied. Microscopic observations revealed that size and morphology of the obtained silica nanoparticles can be changed by varying the ammonia to ethanol ratio, as well as the concentration of sodium silicate solution. The results revealed that the particles size is raised by increasing the ethanol to ammonia ratio and increasing the sodium silicate concentration leads to irregular and larger particles. the particles In fact, at (EtOH/NH3 :1 and Na2SiO3/H2O:0.07) a stable colloidal silica containing silica nanoparticles with average diameter of 65nm could be achieved. Additionaly, gelation time (tgel) of nanocolloid was measured using time sweep at constant frequencies of 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5 Hz. Applying the gelation point relations, the relaxation power (Δ) and fractal dimension (df) were measured as 0.22 and 2.39, respectively, indicating that the current system follows a non-stoichiometric equilibrium. Furthermore, the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) test confirmed the formation of silica chemical bonding and the purity of the washed silica particles was increased from 84.18% to 87.33%, measured via X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF)

Keywords

• silica synthesis
• nanoparticles
• nanocolloid
• acidic
• alkaline