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Discipline: Chemistry and Chemical Sciences
Subcategory: Nanoscience
Shannon Vandevander - Virginia State University
Co-Author(s): Dipti Biswal, Virgina State University, Petersburg, VA
Nanoparticles research has gained momentum in the recent years by providing innovative solutions in the field of biomedical, materials science, optics and electronics. In the last decades, zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs), as a new type of high-functional nanoparticles, have been widely used in cosmetics, food additives and pharmaceutical1. Additionally, ZnO has been used for biosensor application because of its high isoelectric point, biocompatibility, and fast electron transfer kinetics2. ZnO is a versatile functional material that has a diverse group of growth morphologies, such as nanocombs, nanorings, nanohelixes, nanobelts, nanowires and nanocages. ZnO nanoparticles are useful as antimicrobial and antifungal agents when incorporated into materials, such as coating, textiles, plastics, sanitary and biomedical materials. The widespread application of ZnO in various field have raised concern about the size and stability of these nanoparticles. We have synthesized different grades of ZnO nanoparticles by varying the reaction parameters in order to test our hypothesis that the solvent has an effect on the nucleation and growth of the ZnO NP. Nanostructured ZnO NP were synthesized by precipitation method using zinc acetate and sodium hydroxide as precursors in different alcohol and aqueous medium. The nucleation and growth properties of these fabricated NPs were observed by using UV-vis spectrometer at regular interval of times. Our result showed that the nucleation occurred faster in ethanol than aqueous medium. The preparation of high quality polymer matrix with uniform dispersion of the inorganic particles in the hydrogel matrix is still a technological challenge. In order to enhance the stabilization of the particles, the synthesized NPs were surface functionalized by using 3- (Trimethoxysilyl) propyl methacrylate. The silane does not help only stability of the particle but also participate in the polymerization with the vinyl group, by which the nanoparticles remains well dispersed throughout the polymer matrix. From the stability studies it has been observed that the surface functionalized ZnO NPs are more stable than the pure control NPs. The fabricated NPs were characterized by using UV-vis, FTIR and SEM. Future study will be carried out to synthesized hydrogel nanocomposites by incorporating the surface coated NPs in a hydrogel matrix for biomedical applications.
References: 1. R. J. Vandebriel, W. H. De Jong, “A review of mammalian toxicity of ZnO nanoparticles”, Nano-Micro Letters, 2015, (7), 219. 2. Z. L. Wang, “Novel nanostructures of ZnO for nanoscale photonics, optoelectronics, piezoelectricity, and sensing”, Appl. Phys. A (2007), DOI: 10.1007/s00339-007-39428.
Funder Acknowledgement(s): National Science Foundation (NSF) HBCU-UP STEM
Faculty Advisor: Diptirani Samantaray (Biswal),
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