Nanomaterials serve important functions in a variety of emerging technologies addressing sustainability challenges such as water treatment, photovoltaics, batteries, and agriculture to name a few. Controlling the size and shape of nanoparticles is of extreme interest in the nanotechnology community as these affect the properties and performance of the nanoparticles in these various applications. Conventional nanomaterial synthesis relies on high energy processes, the use of organic solvents, and toxic starting materials in contrast to syntheses in supercritical fluids (SCFs), a potential greener processing pathway. The SCFs investigated are inherently green solvents (carbon dioxide, water) and may reduce the environmental impact associated with producing nanoparticles with high quality control. The tunability of SCFs through changes in temperature, pressure and co-solvents offer the potential to control nanoparticle shape and size. This work demonstrates the synthesis of nanoparticles, nano-TiO2 among others, in SCFs through batch hydrothermal synthesis. SEM, TEM, and XRD are used to characterize the nanoparticles for comparison of characteristics and performance with nanoparticles synthesized by conventional methods.

Synthesis of nanoparticles in supercritical fluids: A green approach to producing green technologies

256th National Meeting (2018)

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