Microemulsion Mediated Organically Modified Silica-Based Sensors for Electrocatalysis

Abstract

Organically modified silica (ORMOSIL) is a class of novel materials that can host a variety of organic and inorganic substrates through chemical modification of silica using organic precursors. Silica-based nanoparticles are widely acknowledged for their structural robustness, resistance to biofouling, ease of synthesis, multimodality, and enhanced storage capacity. Materials composed of an ORMOSIL matrix exhibit enhanced activity in an array of photochemical processes, such as emission and absorption, electrochemical sensitivity, and the ability to sense gases, solvents, pH of solutions, and biomolecules. In this study, ORMOSIL nanoparticles were synthesized by microemulsion method. The formation of the as prepared sample was confirmed by x-ray diffraction analysis, EDS, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Further, the electrochemical activity of prepared materials was characterized by cyclic voltammetry (CV) techniques in different scan rates.