Short Article Open Access

Metal-based nanoparticles in environmentally-friendly media: From design to synthesis

Abstract

Metal-Based Nanoparticles (MNPs) have been largely studied in the last decades due to their distinctive properties, which found applications in several fields (microelectronics, medicine, catalysis). “Nano catalysis” emerged as a new concept that combines both colloidal catalysis and catalysis based on engineered Nano-objects, showing defined structures and composition. Like most MNPs, aggregation during the catalytic reaction can lead to structure modifications, precluding their unique properties and then the lack of the expected reactivity. A way to avoid these drawbacks is to use solid supports in order to immobilize the nano catalysts, favoring their recycling, but adding plausible effects due to the metal-support interactions. With the aim of preserving the surface state, the immobilization of MNPs in a liquid phase has been considered. Besides environmentally friendly properties, glycerol is characterized by a complex supramolecular network, permitting to trap the catalyst and easily extract the organic products; the catalytic phase can be then recycled, obtaining metal-free target molecules.

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