Synthesis of Stober silica nanoparticles in solvent environments with different Hansen solubility parameters

Abstract

• Changing the solvent in the Stober synthesis is a good tool to control particle size. • The addition of non-polar liquids results formation of smaller particles. • Dispersion and polar thermodynamic parameters influence on nanoparticle size. • A decrease of hydrogen interaction index leads to size increase of nanoparticles. The most commonly used technique for obtaining SiO 2 nanoparticles of controlled size is the Stober synthesis. In this paper, a series of Stober syntheses in media with different thermodynamic parameters are described and the obtained nanoparticles were characterized by electron microscopy. As a result, it was shown that the solvent variation in the Stober synthesis is a working tool for controlling the particle size of silica. The addition of nonpolar liquids to the reaction mixture led to the formation of smaller particles. Also, it was found that an increase in the dispersion and polar parameters of the solvent leads to an increase in the size of the resulting SiO 2 nanoparticles. The same observations were obtained with a decrease in the index of hydrogen interactions between solvent molecules.