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Superhydrophilic Modification of Magnetic Fe3o4 Nanoparticles Assisted by Low-Temperature Atmosphere N2/H2 Plasma

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Abstract

Superhydrophilic modification of magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles (MNPs) assisted by low-temperature atmosphere N2/H2 plasma was proposed in this work to enhance the dispersion and stability of Fe3O4 nanoparticles in aqueous solution. A detailed plasma chemistry mechanism including a set of electron impact reactions, reactions involving excited species and radicals in a N2/H2 mixture was built to reveal the chemical nature of hydrophilic group generation. The ZDPlasKin-Chemkin coupling method was used to iteratively solve the energy loss fractions of electrons deposited into different molecular degrees as well as the concentration changes in hydrophilic radicals with time evolution. Scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were used to characterize the before and after modification of MNPs and the change of surface tension in MNPs solution. The results show that the surface of the MNPs was successfully functionalized with NH radicals generated by the N2/H2 plasma, while the dispersion and stability of the modified MNPs in aqueous solution was significantly increased. The results further show that the saturation magnetization of MNPs modified by N2/H2 plasma decreased by 9 emu/g on average because of the reduced magnetic moment of the functionalized NH2-MNPs. The results also show that the morphology and lattice structure of the MNPs remain unchanged after plasma functionalization. This plasma-based method reported provides a new research idea for the modification of Fe3O4 nanomaterials.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the GF Special Administrative Region Foundation and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 21975018, 21676024).

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Author notes

  1. Qi Chen and Decai Li contribute equally to this manuscript as senior authors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical, Electronic and Control Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, China

    Zhifan Yang, Qi Chen, Mingming Zhang & Xingyu Lu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Decai Li

  3. School of Material Science and Engineering, Henan University of Technology, Zhengzhou, 450001, China

    Qianqian Chen

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  1. Zhifan Yang
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  2. Qi Chen
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  3. Decai Li
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  4. Qianqian Chen
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Correspondence to Qi Chen or Decai Li.

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Appendix

Appendix

Figure 

Fig. 12
figure 12

The concentrations of the main radicals(-NH2) production and consumption pathways are about a 300 Td; b 150 Td

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12 shows the changes in concentration of radicals (-NH2) in the main production and consumption pathways at 150 Td and 300 Td. Figure 12a shows that the total production of radicals (-NH2) is greater than the total consumption in the first phase and the total production of radicals (-NH2) is less than the total consumption in the second phase; Fig. 12b shows that the total production of radicals (-NH2) is consistently greater than the total consumption in all phases of the reaction.

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Yang, Z., Chen, Q., Li, D. et al. Superhydrophilic Modification of Magnetic Fe3o4 Nanoparticles Assisted by Low-Temperature Atmosphere N2/H2 Plasma. Plasma Chem Plasma Process 42, 641–656 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11090-022-10232-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11090-022-10232-8

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