KCS

We report synthesis and characterization of Mn₃O₄ nanoparticles encapsulated with poly-Dopamine. We are interested in Dopamine as a shell material which can be oxidized and concomitantly polymerized to form a shell around surfactant free Mn₃O₄ nanoparticle within 5 minutes. This fast polymerization is rather surprised observation because the polymerization process of Dopamine is slow with other metal oxide, Fe₃O₄ nanoparticle. This fast polymerization occurred with fast oxidation of Dopamine which is accompanied with the presence of Mn₃O₄. Based on this observation, in this particular system, Mn₃O₄ may play a role of both oxidant and core material. When considering polymerization process on metal oxide, Dopamine coated on the surface of the Mn₃O₄ confined in hollow SiO₂ nanoparticle can be synthesized. By utilizing this novel approach, various organic functionalized hollow SiO₂ nanoparticle which can be used as a catalytic nanoreactor.