Synthesis of magnetic silica-based nanocomposites containing Fe3O4 nanoparticles

A new mesostructured hybrid organic-inorganic silica host with internal anchored acetylacetonate groups has been used as a matrix for the growing and organization of Fe3O4 nanoparticles. The approach used consists in the impregnation and the subsequent organic solution-phase decomposition of the molecular precursor Fe[(OC(CH3))(2)CH](3) into the hybrid silica pores. The magnetic nanocomposite material obtained was fully characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), infrared spectroscopy (IR), nitrogen physisorption, X-ray diffraction techniques and magnetic measurements. These measurements reveal the presence of uniformly sized pure magnetite nanoparticles with a narrow size distribution of 3-4.5 nm exclusively inside the silica matrix. The data demonstrate that the covalent anchoring of the molecular precursor in the silica plays a crucial role in the fabrication of nanocomposites presenting a homogeneous spatial distribution of nanoparticles.