Tuning the Particle Size of Prussian Blue by a Dual Anion Source Method

The preparation of coordination polymer nanoparticles with different sizes has been currently the focus of research attention in many fields such as gas storage, batteries, drug delivery, magnetic resonance imaging, etc. In this paper, we reported a facile dual anion source (DAS) method to prepare Prussian blue (PB) nanoparticles with different particle sizes. With the increasing of FeII(CN)64– reactant usage proportions, the mean size of PB particles increased from 100 nm to 1.6 μm. Such a wide size range was found closely related to the different nucleation processes with varied chemical compositions (proportions of Fe(II) and Fe(III)) of the products. With increasing Fe(II) content in both ends of the cyanide bridge, the PB nucleus generation rate would descend in the product nucleation period. The reported DAS method exploited a new synthetic strategy for controlling the particle size of PB particles. The results would contribute to the research on other coordination polymers in the future.