Fabrication and Characterization of Silica Coated Fe₃O₄Nanoparticles in Reverse Micro Emulsion

Abstract

The silica coated Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles have been synthesized using a micro-emulsion method.The Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles with the sizes 6 nm in diameter were synthesized by thermal decomposition method.Hydrophobic Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles were coated silica using surfactant and tetraethyl orthosilicated (TEOS) as a SiO 2 precursor.Shell thickness of silica coated Fe 3 O 4 can be controlled (11~20 nm) through our synthetic conditions.The Fe 3 O 4 and silica coated Fe 3 O 4 nano powders were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), x-ray diffraction (XRD) and vortex magnetic separation (VMS).