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Sio2 Unit 3 Synthesis Report

Satisfactory Essays

appropriate primer (coupling agent) to enhance coupling of the shell material with thecore. Also, the surface of the core material can be charged,and shell material can be adsorbed on its surface by electrostatic attraction72. Synthesis procedures for preparation of core particles of dielectric, metal and semiconductor materials andvarious ways of incorporating them to form core shell particles are discussed in the next section. Synthesis of dielectric cores Silica (SiO2) (dielectric constant ~4.5)73 is a popular material to form core shell particles because of its extraordinarystability against coagulation. Its non-coagulating nature is due to very low value of Hamaker constant, which defines the Van der Waal forces of attraction among the particles and the medium6. It is also chemically inert, optically transparent and does not affect redox reactions at core surfaces57. For various purposes it is desirable …show more content…

(1). The first step is hydrolysis, in which ethoxy groups are replaced by OH groups. In the second step, silicon hydroxides undergo polycondensation process toform SiO2.Si(OC2H5)4 + 4H2O ? Si(OH)4 + 4C2H5OH Si(OH)4 ? SiO2 + 2H2OBy varying relative ratio of TEOS to solvent (dilution) and amount of catalyst, one can synthesize these particles in various sizes ranging from ~ 50 nm to 1 mm. Reduction in TEOS concentration leads to the formation of smallerparticles. Silica particles synthesized by this procedure are amorphous and porous. Variation of NH4OH (catalyst) concentration changes the size, porosity as well as morphology of these particles2. Figure 2 a shows SEM image of silica particles prepared by the synthesis procedure described above. It can be seen that particles are quite uniform in size (~ 420 nm). They are noncrystalline, but produce a single broad diffraction peak in powder diffraction (Figure 2 b).The other important core material is polystyrene (PS). PS particles along with high stability offer one

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