Synthesis of Silicon Dioxide (SiO<sub>2</sub>) Nanowires via a Polyethylene Glycol-Based Emulsion Template Method in Isopropanol

Typical wet-chemical methods for the preparation of silica nanowires use polyvinylpyrrolidone and n-pentanol. This study presents a polyethylene glycol-based emulsion template method for the synthesis of SiO<sub>2</sub> nanowires (SiO<sub>2</sub>NWs) in isopropanol. By system...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jian Liu, Yonghua Sun, Tianfeng Yang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-02-01
Series:Nanomaterials
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2079-4991/15/5/326
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Summary:Typical wet-chemical methods for the preparation of silica nanowires use polyvinylpyrrolidone and n-pentanol. This study presents a polyethylene glycol-based emulsion template method for the synthesis of SiO<sub>2</sub> nanowires (SiO<sub>2</sub>NWs) in isopropanol. By systematically optimizing key parameters (type of solvent, polyethylene glycol molecular weight and dosage, dosage of sodium citrate, ammonium and tetraethyl orthosilicate, incubation temperature and time), SiO<sub>2</sub>NWs with diameters about 530 nm were obtained. Replacing polyvinylpyrrolidone with polyethylene glycol enabled anisotropic growth in isopropanol, overcoming the dependency on traditional solvents like n-pentanol. Scale-up experiments (10× volume) demonstrated robust reproducibility, yielding nanowires with consistent morphology (~580 nm diameter). After calcination at 500 °C for 1 h, the morphology of the nanowires did not change significantly.
ISSN:2079-4991