Nanoparticles safe handling

The success of these potential applications for nanoparticles relies heavily on the ability to efficiently produce, transport, separate and safely handle nanoparticles. The concepts presented in this chapter on fine particles and colloids provide a starting point for dealing with these issues. 

Amoabediny, G.H., Naderi, A., Malakootikhah, J., Koohi, M.K., Mortazavi, S.A., Naderi, M. Rashedi, H. 2009. Guidelines for safe handling, use and disposal of nanoparticles. Journal of Physics Conference Series, 170, 012037. 

The British Standards Institute (BSI) issued the Published Document (PD) 66992 2007 NanotechnologiesPart 2 Good Practice Guide to Safe Handling and Disposal of Engineered Nanoparticles. The British Manual, not being a standard, has the status of PD. This is a peculiar pre-standard, and is, undoubtedly, a prototype of a future British, European, or International Standard [14]. 

The overall handling of nanoparticles in terms of safety becomes also more and more an important issue. Thus, the preparation of safe and easy to handle dispersions is of great technical importance. Those particles being synthesized in I Ls may be used direcdy, being inherently safe [13]. On the other hand, nanoparticles that are manufactured by other chemical bottom-up-techniques or via top-down techniques can be dispersed by using specific ILs, also because of their generally versatile surface active properties [14]. 

Cellulose is a natural biopolymer, which is biodegradable, environmentally safe, widely abundant, inexpensive, and easy to handle [57]. Cellulose and its derivatives are widely used in chemical and bio-chemical applications and also as supports for the synthesis of organic molecules [58]. Interestingly, the cellulose fibers also act as a nanoreactor for the stabilization of metal nanoparticles [59]. However, its use as a support for catalytic applications is not well explored. Recently, Choplin and coworkers reported cellulose as the support for water soluble Pd(OAc>2/5 TPPTS system in the Trost-Tsuji allylic alkylation reaction [60]. To corroborate the above concept in the cross coupling of aryl halides and boronic acids, we reported A-arylation of imidazoles with aryl halides using a cellulose-supported Cu(0) catalyst (CELL-Cu(O) [61]. The prepared catalyst was well characterized using various instrumental techniques. For example, the X-ray diffraction pattern of CELL-Cu(O) catalyst clearly indicates the presence of Cu (111) and Cu (200) phases which are attributed to Cu(0) [46]. Further, the high resolution XPS narrow scan spectrum of the fresh CELL-Cu(O) catalyst shows a Cu 2p3/2 peak at 932.72 ev, which is attributed to Cu (0) [22]. 

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