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Loedolff MJ, Fuller RO, Nealon GL, Saunders M, Spackman MA, Koutsantonis GA. Solution-phase decomposition of ferrocene into wüstite-iron oxide core-shell nanoparticles. Dalton Trans 2022; 51:1603-1611. [PMID: 34994360 DOI: 10.1039/d1dt03222d] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
We report an improved method for the controlled solvent-phase decomposition of ferrocene into highly crystalline monodisperse iron oxide nanoparticles at relatively low temperatures. Solution-phase decomposition of ferrocene into nanoparticles has received little attention in the literature, due to the percieved stability of ferrocene. However, we synthesised wüstite FeO-iron oxide core-shell nanoparticles by thermally decomposing ferrocene in 1-octadecene solvent and in the presence of oleic acid and oleylamine, as surfactants. We report procedures that provide cubic and spherical core-shell iron oxide nanoparticles whose size (29.3 ± 2.3 nm for spheres, 38.6 ± 6.9 nm for distorted cubes and 23.5 ± 2.4 nm for distorted cubes with concave faces) and shape can be controlled through simple adjustments to reaction parameters. Transmission electron microscopy, scanning transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, electron energy-loss spectroscopy and powder X-ray diffraction analysis methods were used to characterise the nanoparticles.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthys J Loedolff
- School of Molecular Sciences, The University of Western Australia (M310), 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia, 6009, Australia.
| | - Rebecca O Fuller
- School of Molecular Sciences, The University of Western Australia (M310), 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia, 6009, Australia.
| | - Gareth L Nealon
- Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation and Analysis (CMCA), The University of Western Australia (M310), 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia, 6009, Australia
| | - Martin Saunders
- School of Molecular Sciences, The University of Western Australia (M310), 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia, 6009, Australia. .,Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation and Analysis (CMCA), The University of Western Australia (M310), 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia, 6009, Australia
| | - Mark A Spackman
- School of Molecular Sciences, The University of Western Australia (M310), 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia, 6009, Australia.
| | - George A Koutsantonis
- School of Molecular Sciences, The University of Western Australia (M310), 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia, 6009, Australia.
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Cui J, Liu E, Song T, Han Y, Jiang W. Rectangular Cylinders Formed by Compositionally Bidisperse ABC Triblock Terpolymer Blends: A Self-Consistent Field Theory Study. LANGMUIR : THE ACS JOURNAL OF SURFACES AND COLLOIDS 2021; 37:14889-14897. [PMID: 34905363 DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c02713] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Compared with traditional cylinders that have circular cross-sections, cylinders with rectangular cross-sections can endow nanomaterials with various novel optical properties and functions. In this work, the formation of the rectangular cylinders self-assembled by compositionally bidisperse ABC triblock terpolymer blends has been investigated via numerical simulations based on self-consistent field theory. The specially designed blending systems are composed of two types of linear ABC triblock terpolymers that have the same total chain lengths and the middle B block chain lengths, but different chain lengths of the side A/C blocks. By tuning the chain length fractions and the interactions between different blocks, rectangular cylinders with a fourfold symmetry pattern were successfully obtained in our simulations. Each rectangular phase domain is self-assembled together by the short and long side blocks of the same species. The simulation results indicate that the selective aggregation of the short side blocks determines the formation of the rectangular cylindrical phase, i.e., the short side blocks prefer to aggregate at the four corners within a rectangular cylindrical phase domain. This simulation result reveals a formation mechanism that is different from the mechanism proposed in previous experiments [Asai ACS Macro Lett., 2014, 3, 166-169]. Moreover, under different middle B block chain length fractions, phase diagrams as a function of the interaction parameter between different blocks and the short side block chain length fraction have been constructed. The phase diagrams show that the parameter window of the rectangular cylinders is considerably expanded by increasing the chain length fraction of the middle B blocks. Our simulation works can provide a theoretical basis for molecular design to regulate and fabricate nanomaterials with nontraditional phase domains in future experiments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jie Cui
- School of Petrochemical Engineering, Liaoning Petrochemical University, Fushun 113001, P. R. China
| | - Entian Liu
- School of Petrochemical Engineering, Liaoning Petrochemical University, Fushun 113001, P. R. China
| | - Tongjing Song
- School of Petrochemical Engineering, Liaoning Petrochemical University, Fushun 113001, P. R. China
| | - Yuanyuan Han
- School of Petrochemical Engineering, Liaoning Petrochemical University, Fushun 113001, P. R. China
| | - Wei Jiang
- State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, P. R. China
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