Why are nanoparticles useful in producing industrial catalysts?

Answer 1

Silver nanoparticles are used in antibacterial technology embedded in refrigerators, washing machines, air coolers, air conditioners, vacuum cleaners and air purifiers. This helps in blocking transmission of airborne diseases in humans and increases safety of health.

Answer 2

Nanoparticles: Physical and Chemical Properties

The principal parameters of nanoparticles are their shape (including aspect ratios where appropriate), size, and the morphological sub-structure of the substance. Nanoparticles are presented as an aerosol (mostly solid or liquid phase in air), a suspension (mostly solid in liquids) or an emulsion (two liquid phases). In the presence of chemical agents (surfactants), the surface and interfacial properties may be modified. Indirectly such agents can stabilise against coagulation or aggregation by conserving particle charge and by modifying the outmost layer of the particle. Depending on the growth history and the lifetime of a nanoparticle, very complex compositions, possibly with complex mixtures of adsorbates, have to be expected. In the typical history of a combustion nanoparticle, for example, many different agents are prone to condensation on the particle while it cools down and is exposed to different ambient atmospheres. Complex surface chemical processes are to be expected and have been identified only for a small number of particulate model systems. At the nanoparticle - liquid interface, polyelectrolytes have been utilised to modify surface properties and the interactions between particles and their environment. They have been used in a wide range of technologies, including adhesion, lubrication, stabilization, and controlled flocculation of colloidal dispersions (Liufu et al 2004).

At some point between the Angstrom level and the micrometre scale, the simple picture of a nanoparticle as a ball or droplet changes. Both physical and chemical properties are derived from atomic and molecular origin in a complex way. For example the electronic and optical properties and the chemical reactivity of small clusters are completely different from the better known property of each component in the bulk or at extended surfaces. Complex quantum mechanical models are required to predict the evolution of such properties with particle size, and typically very well defined conditions are needed to compare experiments and theoretical predictions.

3.4.1 Nanoparticle - Nanoparticle Interaction

At the nanoscale, particle-particle interactions are either dominated by weak Van der Waals forces, stronger polar and electrostatic interactions or covalent interactions. Depending on the viscosity and polarisability of the fluid, particle aggregation is determined by the interparticle interaction. By the modification of the surface layer, the tendency of a colloid to coagulate can be enhanced or hindered. For nanoparticles suspended in air, charges can be accumulated by physical processes such as glow discharge or photoemission. In liquids, particle charge can be stabilised by electrochemical processes at surfaces. The details of nanoparticle - nanoparticle interaction forces and nanoparticle - fluid interactions are of key importance to describe physical and chemical processes, and the temporal evolution of free nanoparticles. They remain difficult to characterise due to the small amount of molecules involved in the surface active layer. Both surface energy, charge and solvation are relevant parameters to be considered. Due to the crucial role of the nanoparticle - nanoparticle interaction and the nanoparticle - fluid interaction, the term free nanoparticle can be easily misunderstood. The interaction forces, either attractive or repulsive, crucially determine the fate of individual and collective nanoparticles. This interaction between nanoparticles resulting in aggregates and/or agglomerates may influence on their behaviour. In gas suspensions, aggregation is crucially determined by the size and diffusion, and coagulation typically occurs faster than in the liquid phase as the sticking coefficient is closer to unity than in liquids.

Answer 3

Nanochemistry is a new branch of nanoscience related with the production and the reactions of nanoparticles and their compounds. It is concerned with the unique properties associated with assemblies of atoms or molecules on a scale between that of the individual building blocks and the bulk material (from 1 to 1000 nm[1]). At this level, quantum effects can be significant, and also new ways of carrying out chemical reactions become possible. Professor Geoffrey Ozin of the University of Toronto is regarded as the father of nanochemistry. "His visionary paper "Nanochemistry - Synthesis in Diminishing Dimensions" (Advanced Materials, 1992, 4, 612) stimulated a whole new field: it proposed how the principles of chemistry could be applied to the bottom-up synthesis of materials "over all length scales" through "building-block hierarchical construction principles": that is, by using molecular/nano-scale building blocks "programmed" with chemical information that will spontaneously self-assemble, in a controlled way, into structures that traverse a wide range of length scales. This was a whole new way of thinking at the time.[2]"

This science use methodologies from the synthetic chemistry and the material's chemistry to obtain nanomaterials with specific sizes, shapes, surface properties, defects, self-assembly properties, designed to accomplish specific functions and uses