Synthesis and Characterization of Monodisperse Colloidal Organo-silica Spheres

Monodisperse, colloidal silica spheres were prepared from tetraethoxysilane (TES) in mixtures of ammonia, water, and ethanol. The surface of the particles could be coated through a subsequent chemical reaction with the silane coupling agent 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APS). Also, a new kind of monodisperse, colloidal silica spheres (organo-silica spheres) was prepared starting from mixtures of APS and TES. Organo-silica spheres synthesized with equal amounts of APS and TES were found to contain as much as 37% of the total amount of APS. The amount taken up by the particles, and therefore also the particle properties, depended on the initial composition of the mixture of alkoxides. It is argued that the most important reaction by which APS is incorporated into the particles is through an alcohol-producing condensation reaction with a silanol group bonded to a silicon atom that was part of a TES molecule. Because of this proposed mechanism, it is argued that this base-catalyzed method of making hybrid organic-silica particles will also be applicable to mixtures of other organoalkoxides. The organo-silica spheres differed from silica spheres prepared with TES alone in the following aspects: The negative surface charge in the mixture of water, ammonia and ethanol was reduced, the mass density was lower (e.g., 1.51 g/cm 3 compared to 1.98 g/cm 3), the microporosity was larger, and the siloxane structure was less condensed. The particle refractive index was higher, but the differences were small (around 0.02). It was shown that particles with APS on the surface could be grown larger with a silica layer prepared from TES. Organo-silica particles and silica-coated organo-silica particles were surface coated with stearyl alcohol. The resulting stability in several solvents was assessed. The different colloidal systems were characterized by static and dynamic light scattering, transmission electron microscopy, elemental analysis, nitrogen adsorption measurements, electrophoresis, and qualitative 13C and quantitative 19 Si solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.