Scalable and sustainable synthesis of size-controlled monodisperse dendritic fibrous nanosilica quantified by E-factor

Abstract

Although the field of nanomaterial synthesis has expanded over last two decades with the innovation of many unique morphology-controlled nanostructures, such as dendritic fibrous nanosilica (DFNS), their successful use hinges critically on the development of scalable synthesis methods to provide technologically significant quantities of high-quality nanomaterials with tunable size, morphology, and textural properties. This study details a simple, versatile, scalable synthesis route for DFNS. We develop a DFNS synthesis process by replacing the microwave-assisted closed-reactor synthesis protocol with a round-bottom-flask-based open-reactor protocol. This development not only enhances the sustainability of the process but also allows the synthesis of highly monodisperse DFNS with a narrow pore size distribution and controllable particle size, fiber density, and textural properties. The sustainability of this protocol was compared with synthesis protocols for a range of other nanomaterials using the E-factor, and we found a remarkable E-factor value of 15 for the DFNS protocol, which is several orders of magnitude better than other reported processes.