PFG NMR investigations of TPA-TMA-silica mixtures

Pulsed-field gradient (PFG) NMR studies of tetrapropylammonium (TPA)-tetramethylammonium (TMA)-silica mixtures are presented, and the effect of TMA as a foreign ion on the TPA-silica nanoparticle interactions before and after heating has been studied. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) results suggest that silica nanoparticles in these TPA-TMA systems grow via a ripening mechanism for the first 24 h of heating. PFG NMR of mixtures before heating show that TMA can effectively displace TPA from the nanoparticle surface. The binding isotherms of TPA at room temperature obtained via PFG NMR can be described by Langmuir isotherms, and indicate a decrease in the adsorbed amount of TPA upon addition of TMA. PFG NMR also shows a systematic increase in the self-diffusion coefficient of TPA in both the mixed TPA-TMA systems and pure TPA systems with heating time, indicating an increased amount of TPA in solution upon heating. By contrast, a much smaller amount of TMA is observed to desorb from the nanoparticles upon heating. These results point to the desorption of TPA from the nanoparticles being a kinetically controlled process. The apparent desorption rate constants were calculated from fitting the desorbed amount of TPA with time via a pseudosecond-order kinetic model. This analysis show the rate of TPA desorption in TPA-TMA mixtures increases with increasing TMA content, whereas for pure TPA mixtures the rate of TPA desorption is much less sensitive to the TPA concentration.