Various analytical methods were used to identify and validate the synthesized SiO2 NPs powder. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) was used to examine the morphology of SiO2 NPs (model: MIRA3 TESCAN). Prior to FESEM, the samples were sputtered coated with a very thin layer of gold (Au). The elemental configuration of SiO2 NPs was determined using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) associated with the FESEM. Aside from that, the crystalline structure of SiO2 NPs was investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), patterns (Bruker D8 Discover X-ray Diffraction). A small quantity of small (1 wt %) was scrupulously mixed with potassium bromide (KBr) pellet (FTIR grade) and a disc was prepared. Thereafter prepared pellet was measured through FTIR spectroscope (Bruker FTIR) have in the wave number region of 4000–400 cm−1 (Kumari and Khan 2017 (link)).
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