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Preparation of silica micro spheres via a semibatch sol–gel method

  • Original Paper: Fundamentals of sol-gel and hybrid materials processing
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Abstract

Silica micro spheres could be obtained through a semibatch sol–gel process, which was carried out by adding a solution of tetraethyl orthosilicate in ethanol into a mixture batch of KCl, ethanol, NH3•H2O, and water. Compared with other methods the semibatch sol–gel method could produce micro size silica spheres with narrow size distribution. The influence of reaction factors to the size and size distribution of silica spheres were studied. K+ could help obtaining large size silica but also could reduce the charge shielding effect, which caused the collision of silica spheres. Water and NH3•H2O were necessary for the hydrolysis of tetraethyl orthosilicate. However, too much water could form thicker hydration shell around K+, and more NH3•H2O in mixture batch would increase number of the nuclei of the solution. When the consumption rate of active silanol for the growing of silica could not offset its formation rate, a small silica size, and broad size distribution would occour. Therefore, the amount of tetraethyl orthosilicate in the reaction and its adding rate should be careful controlled. It was also found that the reaction temperature and holding time, which is the time for stirring of solution after tetraethyl orthosilicate injection, had no significant influence on the particle size.

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Acknowledgments

This work is financial supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51203065), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. JUSRP51622A).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangsu Engineering Technology Research Center for Functional Textiles, College of Textiles and Clothing, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu, 214122, China

    Xiongfang Luo, Jing Dong, Lulu Zhang, Jinmei Du, Hongbo Wang & Weidong Gao

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  1. Xiongfang Luo
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  2. Jing Dong
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  3. Lulu Zhang
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  4. Jinmei Du
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  5. Hongbo Wang
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Correspondence to Jinmei Du.

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Luo, X., Dong, J., Zhang, L. et al. Preparation of silica micro spheres via a semibatch sol–gel method. J Sol-Gel Sci Technol 81, 669–677 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-016-4245-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-016-4245-3

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