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Nanoparticle-Imprinted Silica Gel for the Size-Selective Capture of Silver Ultrafine Nanoparticles from Water

TitleNanoparticle-Imprinted Silica Gel for the Size-Selective Capture of Silver Ultrafine Nanoparticles from Water
Publication TypeArticolo su Rivista peer-reviewed
Year of Publication2023
AuthorsPallavicini, P., Preti L., Protopapa Maria Lucia, Carbone Daniela, Capodieci Laura, Fernandez Y.A. Diaz, Milanese C., Taglietti A., and Doveri L.
JournalMolecules (Basel, Switzerland)
Volume28
Issue10
Pagination4026
Date PublishedJan-05-2023
ISSN14203049
Abstract

A synthetic approach has been developed to prepare silica gel monoliths that embed well separated silver or gold spherical nanoparticles (NP), with diameters of 8, 18 and 115 nm. Fe3+, O2/cysteine and HNO3 were all successfully used to oxidize and remove silver NP from silica, while aqua regia was necessary for gold NP. In all cases, NP-imprinted silica gel materials were obtained, with spherical voids of the same dimensions of the dissolved particles. By grinding the monoliths, we prepared NP-imprinted silica powders that were able to efficiently reuptake silver ultrafine NP (Ag-ufNP, d = 8 nm) from aqueous solutions. Moreover, the NP-imprinted silica powders showed a remarkable size selectivity, based on the best match between NP radius and the curvature radius of the cavities, driven by the optimization of attractive Van der Waals forces between SiO2 and NP. Ag-ufNP are increasingly used in products, goods, medical devices, disinfectants, and their consequent diffusion in the environment is of rising concern. Although limited here to a proof-of-concept level, the materials and methods described in this paper may be an efficient solution for capturing Ag-ufNP from environmental waters and to safely dispose them.

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URLhttps://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85160378860&doi=10.3390%2fmolecules28104026&partnerID=40&md5=8c9e1dff1704db275e29041a0c8d9a0e
DOI10.3390/molecules28104026
Short TitleMolecules
Citation KeyPallavicini2023