Synthesis and characterization of monodisperse ultra-thin silica-coated magnetic nanoparticles.

A systematic study of the formation of silica-coated magnetite particles via a modified reverse microemulsion approach was investigated by using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), x-ray diffraction (XRD) and a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID). The results show that the surfactant Igepal CO-520 played an important role in the reaction system, and the thickness of the silica shell could be controlled by the concentration of the reaction agents. The developed ultra-thin silica-coated magnetic particles with a ∼2 nm thin silica shell have a high saturated magnetization around 15 emu g(-1).