Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles as robust photothermal agents for driving high barrier reactions under ambient conditions

Abstract

Magnetite nanoparticles (MNPs) show remarkable stability during extreme photothermal heating (≥770 K), displaying no change in size, crystallinity, or surfactants. The heat produced is also shown as chemically useful, driving the high-barrier thermal decomposition of polypropylene carbonate. This suggests MNPs are better photothermal agents (compared to gold nanoparticles), for photothermally driving high-barrier chemical transformations.

Photothermal Effectiveness of Magnetite Nanoparticles: Dependence upon Particle Size Probed by Experiment and Simulation

“…As shown in Figure 2 , TEM analysis shows that the particles do not experience significant changes in size under these conditions, while the XRD patterns demonstrate that the MNP experience no apparent changes to their crystalline phase. These results are consistent with previous results involving MNP [ 33 ] and that indicate that the vast majority of heat generated by the particles is effectively dissipated to the surroundings without driving significant undesirable changes o the particles such as fragmentation, agglomeration or crystalline phase transitions. This stability in terms of size, shape and structure allows us to systematically probe how differences in MNP size affect their ability to photothermally drive the decomposition of PPC, which would not be possible with AuNPs under these photothermal conditions.…”

“…In order to determine the relative efficacy of these particles for photothermal decomposition of PPC, we cast PPC films of 0.99% weight MNP. We then exposed these films to the same irradiance used to test the MNP stability and followed the course of the PPC degradation over time, using the mass loss of the composite film as a metric for the course of the reaction [ 33 , 37 ]. Figure 3 A plots the course of the reaction for four samples exposed to laser irradiation: pure PPC, PPC:5.5 nm MNP, PPC:10 nm MNP and PPC:15 nm MNP.…”

“…Fortunately, the number of nanoparticles demonstrated to be effective photothermal agents is increasing and includes more thermally-stable examples such as magnetite (Fe O ) [ 29 ], Cu S [ 30 ], Cu Se [ 31 ], PbS and carbon black [ 32 ]. Our lab has previously shown that magnetite nanoparticles (MNP) are able to drive high barrier reactions, such as the clean decomposition of polypropylene carbonate(PPC), while maintaining their overall size, shape, composition, structure and ligand environment [ 33 ]. In addition, one can synthesize MNP in multiple sizes [ 34 , 35 , 36 ], and combined with their stability, this makes MNP an ideal system for investigating how the properties of nanoparticles control nanoscale heating.…”

Adaptive Superamphiphilic Organohydrogels with Reconfigurable Surface Topography for Programming Unidirectional Liquid Transport

“…As shown in Figure , we design a smart organohydrogel‐based microfluidic device that can achieve the on‐demand remote programming of unidirectional liquid transport. By the integration of photothermal nanotransducers that are Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles, our nanocomposite organohydrogels exhibit a high near‐infrared (NIR) light absorption capacity. Figure S14 in the Supporting Information demonstrates materials' rapid photothermal effect, where a macroscale organohydrgogel surface can be heated from 22 to 70 °C in 5 s through the NIR laser irradiation (808 nm, 1.8 W cm −2 ).…”

A new strategy for utilization of NIR from solar energy—Promotion effect generated from photothermal effect of Fe3O4@SiO2 for photocatalytic oxidation of NO

“…Noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) of Au, Ag, and Pd that support LSPR in the visible spectrum were the most studied plasmonic NPs, but they were expensive for application. Compared to noble metal NPs, transition metal NPs-Fe 3 O 4 showed a list of desirable properties for efficient and stable photothermal reactions: (i) a substantial photon absorption cross-section, (ii) strong intraparticle bonds, (iii) strong bonds to any surfactants, and (iV)environmental friendly and economical [24]; that's why it attracted researchers' attention in photothermal applications.…”