- Title
- Investigation of polymeric nuclei and their role in biomimetic silication: effect of physical conditions
- Creator
- Seyfaee, Ahmad; Neville, F; Hyde, Emily D. E. R.; Aubin, Joelle; Moreno-Atanasio, Roberto; Neville, Frances
- Relation
- APCChE 2015 Congress incorporating Chemeca 2015. Proceedings of APCCHE 2015/Chemeca 2015 (Melbourne 27 September, 2015 - 01 October, 2015) p. 2081-2092
- Publisher
- Engineers Australia
- Resource Type
- conference paper
- Date
- 2015
- Description
- Silica particles can be synthesized via condensation polymerization of a hydrolysed silica source such as trimethoxymethylsilane (TMOMS). Biomimetic silica particles are formed by using polyamines, such as polyethyleneimine (PEI). Negatively charged hydrolysed TMOMS molecules are attracted to positively charged nuclei consisting of PEI and phosphate buffer (PB), around which TMOMS molecules then polymerize to form primary particles (<25 nm). Large silica particles (350-900 nm) are then produced by aggregation of these primary particles. To further understand PEI and PEI/PB nuclei, two sets of investigations were designed; named nuclei study and silication study. Different concentrations of PEI or PEI/PB polymer at different pH values were examined in this paper. In the nuclei study, viscosity measurements and dynamic light scattering were used to characterise PEI and PEI/PB molecules. In the silication study, the effect of concentration of nuclei (PEI or PEI/PB molecules) and the pH of their solutions on silication reactions were studied using a gravimetric method (reaction yield), dynamic light scattering and zeta potential measurements. We have determined that it is vital to regulate the conditions of pH for controlled biomimetic silica growth since depending on the pH used, gel or colloidal particles may be produced. In addition, the final particle size and reaction yield was shown to be a function of nuclei concentration and pH. We can use this knowledge in order to control silica growth in other applications, for example, the use of coating coreshell particles for mineral separation and drug delivery applications.
- Subject
- polyethyleneimine; polymeric nuclei; PEI-silica particle synthesis
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1317360
- Identifier
- uon:23399
- Language
- eng
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