SILICA NANOPARTICLES: EXPLORING A GREENER ONE-POT SYNTHESIS

In this work, we report a facile one-pot synthesis of silica nanoparticles (SiO2NPs) than the classical Stöber method, involving sodium metasilicate as a cheaper Si source than TEOS and shorter reaction times under neutral reaction conditions at room temperature. A multi-technical characterization of the SiO2NPs (XRD, FTIR, UV-vis DR,TEM, Z-potential, and N2 adsorption-desorption isotherms at 77 K) evidenced the formation of spherical NPs, with a polydisperse nature, negatively charged surface, and porous structure. A metric to assess the “greenness” of the proposed SiO2NPs synthesis allows to indicate that is a more environmentally friendly process than other chemical procedures, which was performed under mild conditions, such as room temperature and ambient pressure, without a derivatization process, using only water as solvent, and generating innocuous waste.