Encapsulation of functional nanoparticles in mesoporous silica: synthesis and physicochemical characterization

MARÍA FLORENCIA TORRES; ADRIÁN HEREDIA; ANTONIO RIBERA; RAQUEL GALIAN; JULIA PÉREZ-PRIETO

Foz do Iguaçu

Conferencia; 12th Latin American Conference on Physical Organic Chemistry; 2013

Mesoporous silica (MS) materials have been a focus of research due to their peculiar structure, such as adjustable pore size, high surface area, and abundant Si–OH bonds, making them soluble in water and hydrophilic solvents and suitable for further modification. Their potential applications in catalysis, adsorption/separation, and controlled drug-release make them very attractive materials. 1 The incorporation of semiconductor and magnetic nanoparticles will add valuable properties, like fluorescence and magnetism, respectively, to the MS material. The aim of this work was to encapsulate different types of nanoparticles, such as semiconductor (QD@MS), gold (Au@MS), or both gold and magnetic nanoparticles (Fe2O3/Au@MS), into the mesoporous silica, with the final aim of applying them in photocatalysis. First, the different nanoparticles were synthesized and characterized by optical and microscopic techniques. The effect of the nanoparticle composition and size, as well as the NP/sílica concentration ratio on the distribution of the nanoparticles and the final size of the MS material, were studied in detail. Optimization parameters to get the nanoparticle centered into the MS nanoparticles will be discussed.