Oil-in-Water and Bicontinuous Microemulsions for the Synthesis of Metallic, Metal Oxide and MOF Nanoparticles and Nanostructures
by
Margarita Sánchez-Dominguez
Centro de Investigación en Materiales Avanzados, S.C. (CIMAV S.C.), Subsede Monterrey, Apodaca Nuevo León 66628 México
Since first being reported in 1982, the microemulsion reaction method has been employed extensively for the synthesis of a variety of metallic, metal oxide and other inorganic nanoparticles with a narrow size distribution, high specific surface area (SSA) and a good performance in applications such as catalysis. Most of those investigations were based on water-in-oil (w/o) microemulsions. However, the use of w/o microemulsions requires high amounts of solvent, hindering its applications at the industrial scale. Hence, from a practical, environmental, and economical point of view, the possibility of using oil-in-water (o/w) microemulsions may offer advantages, since the major phase is water. Such approach implies the use of organometallic precursors, dissolved in nanometer scale oil droplets (stabilized by surfactant), and dispersed in the continuous aqueous phase; the precipitating agents, which are usually water-soluble, can be added directly to the microemulsion as an aqueous solutions without compromising microemulsion stability. It was reported for the first time as a proof of concept by our group in 2009, and it was demonstrated that small nanoparticles with a narrow size distribution, good crystallinity and high SSA could be obtained. On the other hand, in recent years we also investigated the synthesis of nanomaterials in nonionic bicontinuous microemulsions, resulting in hierarchical superstructures of metal, metal oxide and some hybrid systems.
In this contribution, we present an insight into the most important aspects of the use of microemulsions as confined reaction media, as well as examples of the synthesis of various nanomaterials obtained in O/W and bicontinuous microemulsions carried out by our research group, including nanoparticles, hybrid nanocrystals and hierarchical superstructures. Finally, our latest efforts are being directed towards the synthesis of nanostructured MOFs in both O/W and bicontinuous microemulsions, and we have been able to obtain some nanostructured MOFs of the UiO-66 family at room temperature. The obtained results demonstrate the feasibility of this approach for the preparation of a great variety of nanomaterials with many potential applications, in particular those related with catalysis, photocatalysis, electrocatalysis, SERS substrates and remediation of pollutants, amongst others.
It is our pleasure to invite you to join the ISGS eSeminar for November 2024, which will be delivered by Professor Margarita Sánchez-Dominguez on Wednesday 27 November. Margarita joins us from CIMAV Monterrey in México and is a member of the Mexican Academy of Science (AMC). Please click here and here to learn more about her research and interesting career journey to date.
Date: Wednesday 27 November 2024
Format:
- ZOOM (eSeminar link), Meeting ID: 307 291 6432
- Passcode: 8a9A&79)
Time:
- 09:00 – México
- 12:00 – Brazil (São Paulo) and Argentina
- 15:00 – UTC
- 15:00 – UK, Portugal
- 16:00 – Central Europe, Sweden, Italy
- 17:00 – Romania, Israel, Eastern Europe, Ukraine
- 18:00 – Russia (Moscow, St Petersburg)
- 23:00 – China, Singapore, Malaysia
- 00:00 – Japan, Korea
- 01:00 – Australia (Next Day, Queensland)
