Nanotechnology and nanomaterials

Synthesis and characterization of organo-palygorskite supported nZVI
Zhdanyuk N.V.
Department of Chemical Technology of Ceramics and Glass, National Technical University of Ukraine «Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute», Kyiv-03057, Ukraine. E-mail: zhdanyukn.kpi@gmail.com

The synthesis of iron nanoparticles was conducted without applying an inert atmosphere as reported by [1]. In each batch, 2,64 g FeSO4·7H2O was dissolved in 60 mL solution (50 mL deionized water and 10 mL absolute ethanol). Amounts of 5 g HDTMA - Palygorskite were dispersed in the FeSO4 solution by stirring. NaBH4 was dissolved of deionized water to provide a 1 M solution and added into the HDTMA- palygorskite & FeSO4 dispersion. Excess borohydride was applied to accelerate the synthesis reaction. The borohydride reduces the Fe2+ to Fe0. The iron particles were separated by vacuum filtration and stabilized by washing at least three times with ethanol. 
TEM images of the samples were recorded with a «PЕМ-U» (Fig. 1a, b, c). The particles Fe0 formed spherical aggregates of 20–80 nm diameter particles connected to chains. 
Fig. 1. TEM images of: (a) un supported iron nanoparticles, (b) iron nanoparticles supported by palygorskite, (c) iron nanoparticles supported by HDTMA-palygorskite.

The various shaped particles consist of nearlysingle crystals of iron with a shell of polycrystalline iron (hydr)oxides [2]. Some of the particles supported by HDTMA-palygorskite (Fig. 1c) were arranged in chains, whereas others were attached by the chains or palygorskite particles.

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2.	Sun, Y.-P., Li, X.-q., Cao, J., Zhang, W.-x., Wang, H.P.. Characterization of zerovalent iron nanoparticles // Adv. Colloid Interface Sci. – 2006.-120.-P. 47–56.