Nanocatalysis and Prospects of Green Chemistry

Abstract

Designing and developing ideal catalyst paves the way to green chemistry. The fields of catalysis and nanoscience have been inextricably linked to each other for a long time. Thanks to the recent advances in characterization techniques, the old technology has been revisited with a new scope. The last decade has witnessed a flood of research activity in the field of nanocatalysis, with most of the studies focusing on the effect of size on catalytic properties. This led to the development of much greener catalysts with higher activity, selectivity and greater ease of separation from the reaction medium. This Minireview describes the emerging trends in the field of nanocatalysis with implications towards green chemistry and sustainability.

Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles with antimicrobial and azo dye (Congo red) degradation properties using Amaranthus gangeticus Linn leaf extract

“…Over the past few years, synthesis of metal nanoparticles is one of the upcoming areas of research in the field of material science owing to their wide variety of applications in the field of catalysis (Kalidindi and Jadirdar 2012), photonics (Shen et al 2000), chemical and bio-sensing (Zayats et al 2003), medicine (Jotterand and Alexander 2011;Etheridge et al 2013) etc. Nano crystalline silver is well known for possessing an inhibitory effect towards many bacterial stains and microorganisms (Zhang et al 2012;Prabhu and Poulose 2012).…”

Phytoextraction as a tool for green chemistry

“…The long term security of elemental supply has become an important issue at local (industrial), national and continental levels [1]. Elements are not "running out" or being destroyed, but rather are being dispersed throughout the technosphere, making recapture both highly problematic and often costly [2,3]. These challenges must be tackled through the development of multidisciplinary partnerships, which adopt sustainable, holistic approaches consistent with recovery and reuse [1].…”

Nanocatalysis: Academic Discipline and Industrial Realities

“…In contrast to existing reviews that focus mainly on scientific publications in this area [15,[18][19][20][21][22][23], the present paper features additionally an economic and industrial perspective. In the beginning of this review, we provide an overview of the science base of nanocatalysis.…”

“…The field of nanocatalysis is not as new as could be expected from the current nanohype [24]. Actually, its concept is known since the 1950s when the term nanotechnology was not even known [19,25,26]. Nanocatalysis combines the advantageous characteristics of both homogenous and heterogeneous catalyses, while reducing their respective drawbacks [21].…”