This document is an expanded abstract.
Summary
In this work we present a new class of adsorbent which is based on coated metal oxides. These coated metal oxides address many of the deficiencies that exist in normal metal oxides such as low capacity and low regenerability.
Introduction
Iron based materials have attracted great scientific interest in the past decades because of their wide range of applications including biomedical, environmental remediation, catalysis and data storage. Maghemite and magnetite are of particular interest due to their chemical stability, biocompatibility and interesting magnetic properties.1 The synthesis of magnetic iron oxides with narrow size distribution and uniform morphology is of prime importance for any of the above mentioned fields of application.2 Up to now, there have been many reports on the preparation of iron oxides nanoparticles through various chemical methods.3,4 Nevertheless, agglomeration of nanoparticles limits their application in the most of these fields.
Theory and/or Method
In the current work, we present the synthesis of Fe2O3 nanoparticles with controllable sizes in spherical and faceted shapes, and their encapsulation in mesoporous silica cells via a facile methodology. The method is based on the thermolytic decomposition of Fe(acac) 3 in octadecene, in the presence of oleic acid/oleyl amine mixture performed at elevated temperature (250-330 oC). By the appropriate control of the reaction parameters, temperature and oleic acid/oleyl amine ratio, we are able to produce spherical or faceted particles in the size range of 5-100 nm. Furthermore, the surface functionalization of the particles by the binary aliphatic acid and amine gives them the physicochemical functionality for their encapsulation in mesoporous silica via a reverse micelle emulsion technique followed by Stöber process.
