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Transforming single domain magnetic CoFe2O4 nanoparticles from hydrophobic to hydrophilic by novel mechanochemical ligand exchange

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Abstract

Single-phase uniform-sized (~9 nm) cobalt ferrite (CFO) nanoparticles have been synthesized by hydrothermal synthesis using oleic acid as a surfactant. The as-synthesized oleic acid-coated CFO (OA-CFO) nanoparticles were well dispersible in nonpolar solvents but not dispersible in water. The OA-CFO nanoparticles have been successfully transformed to highly water-dispersible citric acid-coated CFO (CA-CFO) nanoparticles using a novel single-step ligand exchange process by mechanochemical milling, in which small chain citric acid molecules replace the original large chain oleic acid molecules available on CFO nanoparticles. The OA-CFO nanoparticle’s hexane solution and CA-CFO nanoparticle’s water solution remain stable even after 6 months and show no agglomeration and their dispersion stability was confirmed by zeta-potential measurements. The contact angle measurement shows that OA-CFO nanoparticles are hydrophobic whereas CA-CFO nanoparticles are superhydrophilic in nature. The potentiality of as-synthesized OA-CFO and mechanochemically transformed CA-CFO nanoparticles for the demulsification of highly stabilized water-in-oil and oil-in-water emulsions has been demonstrated.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the DeitY (project no. RP02395) and one of the authors (Sandeep Munjal) is thankful to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi for Senior Research Fellowship (SRF) Grant (09/086(1179)/2013-EMR1). It is declared that the authors have no other conflict of interest.

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  1. Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi, 110016, India

    Sandeep Munjal & Neeraj Khare

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  1. Sandeep Munjal
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  2. Neeraj Khare
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Correspondence to Neeraj Khare.

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Munjal, S., Khare, N. Transforming single domain magnetic CoFe2O4 nanoparticles from hydrophobic to hydrophilic by novel mechanochemical ligand exchange. J Nanopart Res 19, 18 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-016-3700-y

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