Synthesis and Characterization of Silica-Encapsulated Iron Oxide Nanoparticles

Author

Yimeng Du ; Li Li ; Leung, C.W. ; Lai, P.T. ; Pong, Philip W. T.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Electron. Eng., Univ. of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

Volume

50

Issue

1

fYear

2014

fDate

Jan. 2014

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

The properties of magnetic core-shell nanoparticles greatly depend on their core sizes and shell materials. Silica shell can prevent the magnetic nanoparticles from corrosion and agglomeration. In addition, the hydrolyzed silica can provide silanol groups to facilitate surface biofunctionalization. In this paper, superparamagnetic Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles coated with SiO₂ shell were prepared by a one-pot water-in-oil microemulsion method. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) were utilized to characterize the morphology and magnetic properties of the synthesized nanoparticles. The results indicated that by tuning the water/surfactant molar ratio (Wo) of the microemulsion system, core size of the resulting Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles can be altered. The size-controllable silica-encapsulated Fe₃O₄ superparamagnetic nanoparticles have great potential to be applied as multifunctional tracer materials for magnetic particle imaging (MPI).

Keywords

coatings; corrosion; iron compounds; magnetic particles; microemulsions; nanocomposites; nanofabrication; nanomagnetics; nanoparticles; paramagnetic materials; particle size; scanning electron microscopy; silicon compounds; superparamagnetism; transmission electron microscopy; SEM; SiO₂-Fe₂O₃; TEM; agglomeration; coatings; core size; core-shell nanoparticles; corrosion; hydrolyzed silica; magnetic nanoparticles; magnetic particle imaging; magnetic properties; morphology; multifunctional tracer materials; one-pot water-in-oil microemulsion method; scanning electron microscopy; silanol groups; silica shell; silica-encapsulated iron oxide nanoparticles; superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles; surface biofunctionalization; transmission electron microscopy; vibrating sample magnetometry; water-surfactant molar ratio; Iron; Magnetic cores; Magnetic properties; Magnetic resonance imaging; Materials; Nanoparticles; Silicon compounds; Core-shell nanoparticles; iron oxide nanoparticles; magnetic particle imaging (MPI); microemulsion;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TMAG.2013.2272215

Filename

6692994