FTIR, TEM and NMR Iinvestigations of Stöber Silica Nanoparticles

In this work, the sol-gel process in non-aqueous system of tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) has been investigated. The formation of spherical silica nanoparticles was studied using 1H and 13C NMR, FTIR spectroscopies and TEM. It was demonstrated that FTIR, TEM and 1H NMR can be employed to monitor effectively the conversion of TEOS into insoluble SiO2 from the supersaturation of hydrolyzed monomers. This leads to the formation of colloidal silica primary particles. The optimized sol-gel parameters allow to produce the monodisperse spherical silica particles suitable for the development of technology for antireflection coatings.