Synthesis and characterization of magnetic cobalt ferrite nanoparticles covered with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane for use as hybrid material in nano technology

Nowadays with the appear of nano science and nano technology, magnetic nanoparticles have been finding a variety of applications in the fields of biomedicine, diagnosis, molecular biology, biochemistry, catalysis, etc. The magnetic functionalized nanoparticles are constituted of a magnetic nucleus, involved by a polymeric layer with active sites, which ones could anchor metals or selective organic compounds. These nanoparticles are considered organic inorganic hybrid materials and have great interest as materials for commercial applications due to the specific properties. Among the important applications it can be mentioned: magneto hyperthermia treatment, drugs delivery in specific local of the body, molecular recognition, biosensors, enhancement of nuclear magnetic resonance images quality, etc. This work was developed in two parts: 1) the synthesis of the nucleus composed by superparamagnetic nanoparticles of cobalt ferrite and, 2) the recovering of nucleus by a polymeric bifunctional 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane. The parameters studied in the first part of the research were: pH, hydroxide molar concentration, hydroxide type, reagent order of addition, reagent way of addition, speed of shake, metals initial concentrations, molar fraction of cobalt and thermal treatment. In the second part it was studied: pH, temperature, catalyst type, catalyst concentration, time of reaction, relation ratios of H2O/silane, type of medium and the efficiency of the recovering regarding to pH. The products obtained were characterized using the following techniques X-ray powder diffraction (DRX), transmission electronic microscopy (TEM), scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), spectroscopy of scatterbrained energy spectroscopy (DES), atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA/DTGA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and magnetization curves (VSM). (author)