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GREENER PRODUCTION OF NOBLE METAL NANOSTRUCTURES AND NANOCOMPOSITES: RISK REDUCTION AND APPLICATIONS
Citation:
VARMA, R. S. AND M. N. NADAGOUDA. GREENER PRODUCTION OF NOBLE METAL NANOSTRUCTURES AND NANOCOMPOSITES: RISK REDUCTION AND APPLICATIONS. Presented at Pollution Prevention through Nanotechnology, Washington, DC, September 25 - 26, 2007.
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public.
Description:
The synthesis of nanometal/nano metal oxide/nanostructured polymer and their stabilization (through dispersant, biodegradable polymer) involves the use of natural renewable resources such plant material extract, biodegradable polymers, sugars, vitamins and finally efficient and selective mode of activation microwave (MW) irradiation. The main objectives are of this research are to: • Synthesize nanomaterials and enable their characterization (analysis) through ‘greener’ and optimized preparation • Use nanomaterials safely in appropriate formulations e.g. nanocomposites • Demonstrate production approaches of in-situ generated nanomaterials in the media of choice where they can be used without much handling/manipulation thus reducing the risk Recent results from our laboratory have shown that vitamin C, B1 and B2 or related benign and renewable materials such as carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) can function both as a reducing and capping agent and provide an extremely simple, one-pot greener method to synthesize bulk quantities of nanospheres, nanorods, nanowires, nanoballs of aligned nanobelts and nanoplates of the metals in water without the need of capping or surfactant agents, and/or large amounts of insoluble templates. We have extended this non-conventional MW route to make these nanostructures via spontaneous reduction of gold, silver, platinum and palladium nanostrutures with sugar solutions such as alpha-D-glucose, sucrose and maltose; newer form of porous titania has been also prepared using dextron that can be coated with a carbon as well useful for visible-light induced photodegradation of pollutants. The safer preparation of these nanostructured materials can open myriad of applications, such as energy storage system, catalysis, fuel cell membranes, and nanodevices.