Abstract
Silica nanoparticles were synthesized using trimethoxyvinylsilane (TMVS) as silica precursor and butanol as solvent by micelles entrapment approach. Addition of tween 80 as anionic surfactant and NH3 as base catalyst controlled the size of silica nanoparticles. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of synthesis parameters on the size of silica nanoparticles. For this purpose, reaction temperature, butanol and TMVS were changed during synthesis process and their effects on particle size were investigated. Various sizes of silica nanoparticles in the range 28 – 168 nm were synthesized by changing the synthesis parameters. The size of silica nanoparticles increases by increasing the synthesis temperature and amount of butanol. The influence of the changing the reaction temperature from 30 °C to 70 °C, the particles size increase from 28.91 nm to 113.22 nm. Similar trends observed by addition the amount of butanol, the particle size increases from 44.43 nm to 103.50 nm. From TEM observations, increasing the amount of TMVS in the range 1 mL, 3 mL and 5 mL produced bimodal structures with mean average size of 26.39 nm, 24.60 - 56.78 nm and 51.48 - 167.79 nm, respectively. The particle size of silica nanoparticles were analysed using Malvern Zetasizer Nano ZS while the shape and diameter of the silica nanoparticles verified using transmission electron microscope (TEM). TEM images showed the almost spherical in shape of silica nanoparticles were produced.
