• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.47-56
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• 2023

This study describes the successful synthesize strategy for the silica nanoparticles utilizing various water sources, including tap, industrial, and stream waters without using deionized water. Also, as-synthesized silica nanoparticles are employed as dispersive materials for the electro-responsive smart fluid application. Specifically, homogeneous silica nanoparticles with sizes of 500-700nm are successfully prepared in large scale at once (ca. 12.0 g) with the described experimental method and showing similar structural and chemical characteristics with silica nanoparticles synthesized using the deionized water. The size of silica nanoparticles are varied according to the ion conductivity differences of tap, industrial, stream water, and deionized water. The size of silica nanoparticles decresed with the increased ion conductivity, indicating the ion suppression of growth of silica nanoparticles. Moreover, as-synthesized silica nanoparticles from various water sources of electro-responsive characteristic are investigated by the smart fluid application. The smart fluids containing silica nanoparticles synthesized by tap, industrial, and stream water exhibited higher shear stress compared to the deionized water, owing to the more rigid fibril-like structures formed by the smaller silica nanoparticles. Conclusively, uniform silica nanoparticles from various water sources without any purification are able to successfully prepared without usage of deionized water and resulting silica nanoparticles manifested higher electro-responsive performance.