#65: Impact of deposition conditions on the quality of silica nanoparticle crystalline structures — Presentation Detail — Celebration of Scholars

Additional Information

More information is available at carthage.edu/celebration-scholars/. The following are members of the Research, Scholarship, and Creativity Committee who are eager to listen to ideas and answer questions:

Thomas Carr
Katherin Hilson
Kim Instenes
John Kirk
Sarah Terrill

#65: Impact of deposition conditions on the quality of silica nanoparticle crystalline structures

Name: Marissa Alcala
Major: Chemistry
Hometown: Crystal Lake, IL
Faculty Sponsor: John Kirk
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: Independent research
Funding: SURE

Name: Bailey Figgins
Major: Chemistry
Hometown: Bristol, WI
Faculty Sponsor: John Kirk
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: Independent research
Funding: SURE

Name: Rachael Thomas
Major: Chemistry
Hometown: Milton, WI
Faculty Sponsor: John Kirk
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: Independent research
Funding: SURE

Abstract

Nanotechnology is applicable to a wide range of fields, including environmental monitoring, medical diagnostics, and compound identification. This research works to develop a sensor structure composed of silica nanoparticles for detecting organic compounds in water. These silica nanoparticle crystals can also be used in photonics, separations, and filtration.

Silica nanoparticle crystalline structures can be formed through spin-coating. The quality of silica nanoparticle depositions using this method relies on several factors, including cleaning the substrate, spin-coating speed and time, sonication method, and pH. An optimized deposition technique should result in silica nanoparticle crystalline structures with few irregularities. This work investigated improving and standardizing deposition quality and working to create consistently sized particles. Qualitative and quantitative analysis through UV-Visible Spectrophotometry and ImageJ indicated that through trial and error, optimal conditions were found. The crystals deposited through these methods are a new development and we are quantitatively assessing the parameters for deposition. In the future, gold nanoparticles will be included in the overall structures and require specific, compatible sizing throughout both the silica and the gold nanoparticles. Currently, through various syntheses, different concentrations of the reactants in solution are being observed to reach the most optimal silica nanoparticle sizing. Overall, this work presents the impact of each factor that attributes to a high-quality deposition and their individual analyses, as well the importance of particle sizing that is necessary to continue moving forward in our work.

Poster file

Submit date: March 31, 2022, 12:41 p.m.