editorial nano/microstructured materials: rapid,...

Hindawi Publishing CorporationJournal of NanoparticlesVolume 2013, Article ID 530170, 3 pageshttp://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/530170

EditorialNano/Microstructured Materials: Rapid, Low-Cost, andEco-Friendly Synthesis Methods

Amir Kajbafvala,1 Minghang Li,2 Hamed Bahmanpour,3 Mohammad H. Maneshian,2 andAlexander Kauffmann4

1 Department of Materials Science and Engineering, North Carolina State University, 911 Partners Way, Engineering Building I,Raleigh, NC 27695-7907, USA

2Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76203, USA3Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA4Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden, P.O. Box 27 01 16, 01171 Dresden, Germany

Correspondence should be addressed to Amir Kajbafvala; [email protected]

Received 9 July 2013; Accepted 9 July 2013

Copyright © 2013 Amir Kajbafvala et al.This is an open access article distributed under theCreativeCommonsAttribution License,which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Chemists are required to generate a diverse array of organicand inorganic molecules using eco-friendly conditions,including low-cost and short-reaction times. A primarydriver of synthetic chemistry is, therefore, the developmentof efficient and environmentally benign synthetic protocols,as the pressure to produce the myriad of substances requiredby society in an eco-friendly fashion has continued toincrease. Up to now, many works have been published onsynthesis and characterization of various multidimensionalmicro/nanostructured materials via diverse synthesis meth-ods. However, complex conditions and long synthesis timewere required for most of these technologies.

Microwave-assisted processing methods, as good exam-ples, have been developed for a variety of applicationsin organic and inorganic synthesis and transformations.There are many examples of the successful applicationof MW-assisted green chemistry for synthesis ofmicro/nanostructured materials in the literature. Thisspecial issue addresses rapid methods for synthesis oforganic and inorganic micro/nanomaterials to maximize theefficient use of safer raw materials and to reduce waste forfabrication of various micro/nanostructured materials. Thisspecial issue contains nineteen papers including seventeenresearch and two review papers.

In “Studying the effects of adding silica sand nanoparticleson epoxy based composites,” T. Ahmad et al. produced

Epoxy-SiO2

nanocomposites using Tronoh silica sandnanoparticles as reinforcement.They reported that density ofthe epoxy-SiO

2nanocomposites increases from 1.157 g/cm3

to 1.244 g/cm3. The mechanical properties of the fabricatednanocomposites decrease with the addition of silica sandnanoparticles due to improper mixing of the nanoparticles.SEM micrographs show white and agglomerate zones onfracture surfaces which indicate that silica sand nanoparticlesare not homogeneously dispersed in epoxy.

In their paper, J. Panda et al. studied a “Green chem-istry approach for efficient synthesis of Schiff bases of Isatinderivatives and evaluation of their antibacterial activities.”They synthesized Schiff base of Isatin derivatives by conven-tional and microwave irradiation method. With microwavesynthesis, the yield of product increases from 60% up to85% as compared to conventional method. By microwaveirradiation the reactions are completed within 5–10min,which reduced the time, waste, and formation of byproduct.This microwave-assisted synthesis is reported as a simpleand eco-friendly route. From their results of antibacterialstudies, they concluded that compounds exhibited significantantibacterial activities against both Gram-positive and gram-negative organisms.

In his paper, A. K. Singh presented “Microwave assistedgrowth of ZnO nanorods and nanopolypods nanostructure thinfilms for gas and explosives sensing.” It was shown that use

2 Journal of Nanoparticles

of triethanolamine (TEA) as capping agent has resulted inthe additional growth of ZnO NPPs. The structural analysisshows hexagonal wurtzite structure of ZnO with planeshighly oriented along (002) direction. The sensing studyof ZnO NRs and ZnO NRs/NPPs samples shows that thesensor response (𝑆) increases with temperature for bothliquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and oxygen, while, with theincrease in gas concentration from 0.2 to 0.4 vol%, the sensorresponse increases gradually and attains saturation for LPG,and, for oxygen, the response is found to be linear with theincrease in gas concentration. The sensor sensing and therecovery time analysis show that the recovery time reduceswith the increase in operation temperature for both gasand explosives. Additionally, the recovery time achieved forLPG at 0.4 vol% concentration is much lesser than thatpreviously reported for ZnO thin filmwithmuch higher LPGconcentration.

In their paper, “Synthesis of ZnO nanostructures bymicrowave irradiation using albumen as a template,” T.Prakash et al. synthesized ZnO nanostructures via amicrowave irradiation method in the presence of albumenas a biotemplate. The composition and morphology of thenanostructures are affected by the presence of albumen as atemplate. The optical band gap of the polycrystalline ZnOnanoparticles increases from 3.22 to 3.25 eV for the samplesynthesized in the presence of albumen because of thedefects’ decrease. The good quality of ZnO nanostructuresproduced was also demonstrated by PL studies.

In “Rapid green synthetic protocol for novel trimetallicnanoparticles,” B. Karthikeyan and B. Loganathan presentedthe preparation of nanosized trimetallic nanocompositesand trimetallic nanotubes from an aqueous solution ofcorresponding metallic precursors. They reported a sim-ple microwave irradiated synthesis of Au-Pt-Ag trimetallicnanocomposites and Au-Pd-Pt trimetallic nanotubes. EDXanalysis confirmed that the percentage of Pt is maximum onthe surface of trimetallic nanoparticles and nanotubes.

In their paper, “Photocatalytic properties of microwave-synthesized TiO

2and ZnO nanoparticles using malachite

green dye,” A. K. Singh and U. T. Nakate synthesized TiO2

and ZnO nanoparticles using a green, efficient, and cost-effective microwave method. The photocatalytic activity ofthese nanoparticles was studied for malachite green (MG)dye under UV light. The photocatalytic tests showed thatTiO2and ZnO nanoparticles have 49.35% and 23.31% pho-

todegradation efficiency, respectively, for MG dye underUV light. TiO

2nanoparticles show more than two-order

photodegradation property for MG dye as compared toZnO.

In “Tuning the pore size in ionic nanoparticle networks”M. -A. N. Gauthey et al. described a new ionic nanoparticlenetworks (INNS) material based on zirconia nanoparticlesand compared the porous characteristics of different INNs,with variousmetal oxide nanoparticles. In thesematerials, theliking imidazolium moieties are maintained in the networkand thus remained accessible to adsorbed molecules. TheINN based on zirconia nanoparticles linked by ionic liquid-like imidazolium bridging units. It was shown that the porous

characteristics of the INNdepend on the size and shape of thenanoparticles. INNs based on large spherical nanoparticles,like SiO

2, are macroporous, while INNs based on small

spherical nanoparticles, like TiO2, are microporous.

In their paper, Y. -W. Chen and D. S. Lee investigated“Selective hydrogenation of p-chloronitrobenzene on nanosizedpdNiB catalysts.” They prepared a series of PdNiB nanoalloycatalysts with various Pd contents by chemical reductionmethod with NaBH

4as the reducing agent. The magnetiza-

tion of PdNiB remarkably increased with doping Pd into NiB.High activity and selectivity on PdNiB in the hydrogenationof 𝑝-CNB could be attributed to both ensemble effect andelectronic effect.

In their paper, “Microwave-assisted synthesis of mixedmetal-oxide nanoparticles,” A. Verma et al. synthesized ZrO

2

and ZrTiO4nanoparticles by microwave-assisted citrate sol-

gel method. Nanoparticles of V2O5supported on ZrO

2were

also synthesized by microwave-assisted solution combustionmethod. The low-angle powder XRDmeasurements confirmthe mesoporous nature of ZrV

2O7and formation of single

phase material up to 10wt% of vanadium incorporation.The HRTEM data confirms the formation of single phase t-ZrO2. Raman spectra further support the crystalline phase

as well as the specific bands to show the modes of vibrationin Zr-O system, whereas the specific bands indicate themodes of vibration in Zr-Ti-O and ZrV

2O7systems. The

crystallite sizes were found to be in the ranges of ∼5–10 nm,∼2–5 nm, and ∼20–50 nm for ZrO

2, ZrTiO

4, and ZrV

2O7,

respectively.In their review article, “Naturally self-assembled nanosys-

tems and their templated structures for photonic applica-tions,” K. Pradeesh et al. discussed fabrication, structural,and optical exciton features of naturally self-assembled low-dimensional IO-hybrid nanosystems. While the fabricationof these self-assembled systems is usually from solutionchemistry techniques, a novel device-compatible thin filmfabrication from very inexpensive method, that is, intercala-tion, was reviewed. Finally, the designing and fabrication ofoptoelectronic compatible photonic architectures from theseIO-hybrids, especially from template-assisted method, havebeen clearly discussed.

In “Rapid, low-cost, and ecofriendly approach for ironnanoparticle synthesis using Aspergillus oryzae TFR9,” J. C.Tarafdar and R. Raliya demonstrated a rapid, low-cost, andeco-friendly synthesis method for fabricating iron nanopar-ticles using the fungi Aspergillus oryzae TFR9.

In their paper, “CuO-CeO2nanocomposite: an efficient

recyclable catalyst for the synthesis of aryl-14H-dibenzo[a-j]xanthenes,” J. Albadi et al. developed a new, efficient, andgreen procedure for the synthesis of biologically impor-tant xanthene derivatives catalyzed by recyclable CuO-CeO

2

nanostructured catalyst, under solvent-free conditions. Thiscatalyst can promote the yields and reaction times over eightruns without noticeable loss in its efficiency.

In their paper, A. K. Mittal et al. studied “Synthesis ofgold nanoparticles using whole cells of Geotrichum candidum.”Various reaction parameters like cell age, temperature, pH,cell mass, and metal ion concentration were optimized to

Journal of Nanoparticles 3

increase the yield and to improve the dispersity of nanoparti-cles. The gold nanoparticle throughout the cell mass suggeststhat Au+3 ions entered the cells through a transport system.The presence of different metabolic enzymes inside the cellsor cytoplasm probably reduced Au+3 to Au0 and capped it byprotective peptide/proteins.

In their article, “Electrochemical method for Ag-PEGnanoparticles synthesis,” M. V. Roldan et al. presented anelectrochemical method to prepare Ag nanoparticles usingpolyethylene glycol (PEG) as stabilizer.The PEG chain lengthdoes not show effects on the shape of the nanoparticlesobtained, which are spherical for all the cases. Nevertheless,with the longer polymer chain length, it is possible to controlthe particle size through the PEG concentration.

In their paper, B. M. Sahoo et al. studied an “Ecofriendlyand facile one-pot multicomponent synthesis of thiopyrim-idines under microwave irradiation.” With the help ofmicrowave synthesis, the yield of product increased from 55%up to 85% as compared to conventional synthesis. In addition,the reaction time is reduced from 4–8 hrs to 5–10min.

In their paper, V. L. Chandraboss et al. studied “Sol-gel synthesis of TiO

2/SiO2and ZnO/SiO

2composite films

and evaluation of their photocatalytic activity towards methylgreen.” In this work, TiO

2/SiO2and ZnO/SiO

2composite

films were prepared by the sol-gel method. These TiO2/SiO2

and ZnO/SiO2filmswere then used for the photodegradation

of methyl green (MG) under UV-light irradiation.In “Antibacterial activity of silver nanoparticles synthesized

by bark extract of Syzygium cumini,” R. Prasad and V. S.swamy used the silver nanoparticles synthesized from thebark extract of S. cumini and its antibacterial effect on the bac-teria, namely, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseu-domonas aeruginosa, Azotobacter chroococcum, and Bacil-lus licheniformis. In the present study, silver nanoparticlesare synthesized at room temperature within a less spanof time. The size of the nanoparticles ranges from 20 to60 nm with spherical shape. These nanoparticles showed abroad spectrum antimicrobial activity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Investigation on theantibacterial activity of synthesized silver nanoparticles usingS. cumini extract against Staphylococcus aureus and Bacilluslicheniformis reveals high potential as antimicrobial agent inpharmaceutical, food, and cosmetic industries.

In their paper, “Green synthesis of nanocrystallineCu2ZnSnS

4powder using hydrothermal route,” S. K. Verma

et al. presented a simple and relatively safe approach ofhydrothermal synthesis of the quaternary semiconductorCZTS nanoparticles. Spherical nanoparticles with diametersof about 4-5 nm are obtained without using any expensivevacuum facilities or high temperature annealing temperature.

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our kind appreciation to all authorsin this special issue for their contribution. Furthermore,

thanks are extended to all reviewers for enhancing the qualityof these papers.

Amir KajbafvalaMinghang Li

Hamed BahmanpourMohammad H. Maneshian

Alexander Kauffmann

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