Effect of ammonia concentration on the properties of silica nanoparticles / Siti Nurul Nadia Rosdiansah

Silica nanoparticles were prepared by Stober method using tetraethoxysilane as
precursor, and ammonia as catalyst- The silica nanoparticles then were
functionalized with silane coupling agent, 3-aminotriethoxysilane (APTES) to
show the feasibility of anchoring functional group NH2 on silica nanoparticles
surface. Five different concentration of ammonia was used to study the effect on
the properties of silica nanoparticles. The samples were analyzed using SEM,
XRD and FTIR. From the analysis, it has been found that the highest
concentration of ammonia produced the largest particle size around 155.42 nm
whereas the lowest concentration of ammonia produced the smallest particle size
around 81.25 nm. The functionalization of APTES on the silica nanoparticles
were analyzed using FTIR where the result shows the existence of amide group on
the silica nanoparticles. This proves that the functionalization of APTES was
successful. XRD pattern shows broad peak at 23° that defined as the typical
amorphous state of silica. The reaction parameters should be optimized further to
produce finer silica nanoparticles which has better solubility and more effective
target drug delivery in biomedical field.