Effect of Temperature on Thermal Treatment of Silica Coated Magnetic Nanoparticles

In the quest for developing a catalyst with as many desired characteristics, a facile synthetic route was designed for the preparation of mesoporous silica coated magnetic nanoparticles(MSMNP) employing a colloid mill reactor. The composite particles were characterized by the techniques, such as nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms, scanning electron microscopy(SEM), transmission electron microscopy(TEM), X-ray diffraction patterns (XRD), thermo-gravimetric analysis(TGA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FTIR) and vibrating sample magnetometer(VSM), etc. The analysis showed that the resulted MSMNP composites were composed of silica shell layers with open pores connecting channels and NiFe₂O₄ with spinel structure, so the thermal treatment temperature did not show significant effect on pore textural properties, and its specific surface areas were in the range of 443-474 m²/g, while pore volume of about 0.8 cm³/g with an average pore size of around 9.5 nm. The composites with super paramagnetic nature were encapsulated entirely with amorphous silica layers contributing to optimum porosity and abundant surface hydroxyl groups.