title: A simple method for the quantification of molecular decorations on silica particles.
abstract: A simple, rapid quantitative approach to determining attachment density on silica nanoparticles has been demonstrated using attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and verified by thermogravimetric analysis. A very high attachment of approximately 5 attachments per nm2has been achieved through photoinduced thiol-ene click reaction of 11-bromo-1-undecene with a thiol functionalized silica nanoparticle formed from mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane as the sole precursor. Attachment density with concentration of alkene and reaction time is shown to be highly nonlinear and appears to be limited by accessability of thiols on the surface of the particle. This method opens the opportunity to form nanoparticles with controlled functionality including multifunctional particles, which have been produced in this work.
authors.affiliation: Centre for NanoScale Science and Technology, Flinders University of South Australia, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, 5001, Australia; National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Tsukuba, 305-0047, Japan.
authors.forename: Daniel N
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Mangos
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Tsukuba, 305-0047, Japan.
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nakanishi
authors.affiliation: Centre for NanoScale Science and Technology, Flinders University of South Australia, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, 5001, Australia.
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Lewis
keywords: ATR-FTIR; Quantitative functionalization; Silica nanoparticles; Sol–gel; Thiol–ene click chemistry