Fabrication of redispersible silica nanoparticles by a facile one-step one-pot approach

Abstract

In this study, special redispersible silica nanoparticles (SNP) was synthesized by a facile one-step one-pot approach. The synthesized amorphous SNP had a spherical and uniform particle morphology with a diameter of 30 nm and exhibited high monodispersity. The characteristics of the particles were investigated by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. The results revealed that there were a large number of methyl groups grafted on the surface of the SNP, and the organic materials content in the as-synthesized SNP was approximately 10%. After a simple ultrasonic process, the SNP solid powder showed excellent stable and transparent redispersion in various organic solvents. In addition, the results revealed that the different polarities of the solvents had a significant effect on the visible light transparency of the SNP redispersion. SNP showed the best redispersion performance in N-methyl-pyrrolidone, exhibiting a transmittance of more than 80% at 600 nm at a high concentration of 25 wt%. The synthesis process developed in this study is simple, inexpensive, and can be used in the industrial application of SNP.