The nanosilica hazard: another variable entity

Napierska, Dorota; Thomassen, Leen CJ; Lison, Dominique; Martens, Johan A; Hoet, Peter H

doi:10.1186/1743-8977-7-39

Particle and Fibre Toxicology

Table 1 Overview of silica materials and relevant properties

From: The nanosilica hazard: another variable entity

Material	Nature of product	Crystallinity	Particle size	Porosity	Polarity	Purity	Applications	Ref
Colloidal silica	Sol	Amorphous	1-1000 nm	Dense	Hydrophillic	Very high	Binders, ink	[15]
Stober silica	Sol	Amorphous	10-1000 nm	Tunable porosity	Hydrophillic	Very high	Research	[16]
Precipitated silica	Powder	Amorphous	5-6 nm primary particles precipitated to 500 nm - 50 μm aggregates	Tunable porosity	Hydrophillic	Very high	Filler and performance additive	[15]
Silica gel	Powder	Amorphous	0.5 - 5 nm primary particles gelled to networks and milled to 500 μm - 6 mm aggregates	Tunable, void spaces between primary particles	Hydrophillic	Very high	Dessicant, filler and performance additive	[15]
Mesoporous silica	Powder	Amorphous	50 - 1000 nm, aggregated because of calcinations	Mesoporous	Hydrophobic	Very high	Drug delivery, catalysis, imaging	[8]
Pyrogenic silica (fumed silica)	Powder	Amorphous	2-50 nm primary particles fused to 1-250 μm aggregates	Void spaces between primary particles	Hydrophobic	Very high	Tickner, performance additive	[15]
Vitreous silica (fused silica glass)	Powder	Amorphous	50-2000 μm	Dense	Hydrophobic (grinded: hydrophilic)	Variable	Glass	[15, 19]
Quartz	Powder	Crystalline	50 nm- several μm	Dense	Hydrophobic/(grinded: hydrophilic)	Variable	Geologic mineral, Piezoelectricity	[19, 20]
Cristobalite	Powder	Crystalline	1 μm - several cm	Dense	Hydrophobic	Variable	Geologic mineral	[20]
Zeosils (porosil)	Powder	Crystalline	0.05-5000 μm	Porous Pore diameter: 0.4-1.2 nm	Hydrophillic/hydrophobic	Very high	Adsorbent	[25]
Clathrasils (porosil)	Powder	Crystalline	0.5-5000 μm	Porous Pore diameter: 0.2-0.3 nm	Hydrophillic/hydrophobic	Very high	Gas separation	[24]
Diatomeus earth, kieselguhr	Powder	Amorphous, partially crystalline	5-120 μm	Dense	Hydrophillic/hydrophobic	Low (90%)	Filter, filling material	[15]

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ISSN: 1743-8977

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