Silica based nanoparticles preparation

The sensitivity of fluorescence-based assays can hence be greatly improved by the use of dye-doped silica nanoparticles and this approach has been pioneered and subsequently deeply investigated by Tan and coworkers.15 Their luminophore of choice was the water-soluble, positively charged tris(2,2 -bipyridyl)dichlororuthenium(II) [Ru(bpy)3]2+ hydrochloride that can be easily incorporated into silica nanoparticles prepared using the reverse microemulsion method. The charge complementarity between the dye and the silica matrix prevents leaching from the particles.15... 

The optical properties of nanoporous silica-based materials can be of interest for photonic applications. The doping of these systems with rare earth ions or semiconducting nanoparticles can lead to the development of improved optical amplifiers or displays. The sol-gel glass technique presents advantages for the preparation of such nanoporous vitreous oxides [421],... 

Mann and coworkers proposed a unique method to prepare nanohybrids of mesoporous silica and gold nanoparticles mediated by programmed DNA hybridization, as illustrated in Figure 4.21 [186], MCM-41 nanoparticles were first functionalized with a 3 -amino-terminated 12-base single strand oligonucleotide... 

The Stober method is also known as a sol-gel method [44, 45], It was named after Stober who first reported the sol-gel synthesis of colloid silica particles in 1968 [45]. In a typical Stober method, silicon alkoxide precursors such as tetramethylorthosili-cate (TMOS) and tetraethylorthosihcate (TEOS), are hydrolyzed in a mixture of water and ethanol. This hydrolysis can be catalyzed by either an acid or a base. In sol-gel processes, an acidic catalyst is preferred to prepare gel structure and a basic catalyst is widely used to synthesize discrete silica nanoparticles. Usually ammonium hydroxide is used as the catalyst in a Stober synthesis. With vigorous stirring, condensation of hydrolyzed monomers is carried out for a certain reaction time period. The resultant silica particles have a nanometer to micrometer size range. 

Silica Nanoparticles. The base-catalyzed hydrolysis of silicon aikoxides in microemulsions produces nanoparticles (20-39). Aqueous ammonia has been used primarily as the base, with AOT and nonionic polyoxyethylene ethers as the main surfactants. Figure 2.2.6 presents a flow diagram for the synthesis of pure silica (23-32) the microemulsion is first prepared and then the alkoxide is added. As can be seen from Table 2.2.1, the microemulsions include the systems AOT/ isooctane/water/ammonia, AOT/toluene/water/ammonia, NP-5/cyclohexane/water/ ammonia, and NP-4/heptane/water/ammonia. Typical reaction times are l -5 days. Various modified silica nanoparticles have also been prepared, including hydropho-... 

Scheme 3.13 Preparation of catalyst materials based on Pd-nanoparticles on different silica supports. Pd cluster [Pd561phen60(OAc)180], (Cp)Pd(allyl) [Pd(i73-C3H5)(f/5-CsH5)], TEOS tetraethoxysilane (Reproduced from Ref. [68] by permission of The Royal Society of Chemistry)...

---