In this work, we present the coating regulations of Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) by the reverse microemulsion
method
to obtain the Fe3O4@SiO2 core/shell
NPs. The regulation produces the core/shell NPs with a single core
and with different shell thicknesses, and it especially can be applied
to different sizes Fe3O4 NPs and avoid the formation
of core-free silica particles. Our results reveal that the silica
coating parameters suitable for Fe3O4 NPs with
certain size are not definitely applicable to that with other sizes,
and the match of the number of Fe3O4 NPs with
aqueous domain is essential. We found that the small aqueous domain
is suitable to coat ultrathin silica shell, while the large aqueous
domain is indispensable for coating thicker shells. To avoid the formation
of core-free silica particles, the thick silica shell can be achieved
by increasing the content of either TEOS through the equivalently
fractionated drops or ammonia with a decreased one-off TEOS. The ligand
exchange between the intermediate processes of the silica coating
is evidenced. Our results provide not only a strategy for synthesizing
uniform Fe3O4@SiO2 core/shell NPs
with controlled shell thickness, but also a regulation that can be
applied to preparation other core–shell NPs.
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