Authors: Jennifer N Duggan Michael J Bozack Christopher B Roberts
Publish Date: 2013/10/29
Volume: 15, Issue: 11, Pages: 2089-
Abstract
Magnetic nanoparticles exhibit a strong tendency to become overly oxidized and unstable during synthesis ultimately leading to nanoparticle agglomeration and degradation Capping agents can be used during nanoparticle synthesis to provide particle surface coverage and to improve nanoparticle dispersibility in solution while preventing excessive oxidation and agglomeration This paper presents a technique to synthesize amorphous 37 ± 15 nm cobalt Co nanoparticles using dimethyl sulfoxide DMSO to function as both the stabilizing agent and the solvent for Co nanoparticles via a quick solventbased reduction of Co2+ with NaBH4 in a DMSO solvent UV–visible spectroscopy analysis was used to determine the minimum amount of reducing agent needed to produce Co nanoparticles so as to limit the waste of reagents TEM and SEM imaging were used to study the morphology of the Co nanoparticles from the DMSO dispersion and of the Co nanoparticle powder FTIR was used to elucidate the nature of the interaction between the Co nanoparticle surface and DMSO Furthermore SEM–EDS elemental mapping was used to determine the composition and surface properties of the Co nanoparticles This synthesis method demonstrates that Co nanoparticles can be successfully synthesized by simply using DMSO as a functional solvent thereby avoiding excessive oxidation and agglomeration in solutionThe authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the US Department of Energy grant No EE0003115 the USDA AFRI program Grant No 20116800530410 and the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Grant No SA 1205/GoMRI002 The authors would like to thank Dr Michael Miller in the Auburn University Research Instrumentation Facility Dr Bart Prorok in the Auburn University Materials Engineering Research Center and Brian Schweiker in the Department of Chemical Engineering for his technical assistance
Keywords: