Abstract
Besides being valuable assets in our daily lives, noble metals (namely, gold, silver, and platinum) also feature many intriguing physical and chemical properties when their sizes are reduced to the nano- or even subnano-scale; such assets may significantly increase the values of the noble metals as functional materials for tackling important societal issues related to human health and the environment. Among which, designing/engineering of noble metal nanomaterials (NMNs) to address challenging issues in the environment has attracted recent interest in the community. In general, the use of NMNs for environmental applications is highly dependent on the physical and chemical properties of NMNs. Such properties can be readily controlled by tailoring the attributes of NMNs, including their size, shape, composition, and surface. In this feature article, we discuss recent progress in the rational design and engineering of NMNs with particular focus on their applications in the field of environmental sensing and catalysis. The development of functional NMNs for environmental applications is highly interdisciplinary, which requires concerted efforts from the communities of materials science, chemistry, engineering, and environmental science.
Highlights
The rapid population growth and fast urbanization and industrialization have caused serious environmental issues that we are currently facing
A number of studies have suggested that some noble metal nanomaterials (NMNs) possess better selectivity and activity than transition metals in many environmental-related catalytic reactions, such as the oxidation of carbon monoxide (CO)[12,13] and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).[14,15]
Besides Au NCs, the applications of Ag NPs and NCs as photosensitizers were recently reported.[181,182]. These results revealed that the photocatalytic activity of various supported NMNs can be efficiently controlled by fine-tuning the size, support, and other parameters of NMNs.[183]
Summary
The rapid population growth and fast urbanization and industrialization have caused serious environmental issues that we are currently facing. A number of studies have suggested that some NMNs possess better selectivity and activity than transition metals in many environmental-related catalytic reactions, such as the oxidation of carbon monoxide (CO)[12,13] and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).[14,15] The rapid development of this field is reflected by the increase of publications over the years and the publication of a number of comprehensive reviews on this topic.[16,17,18,19,20,21] Most of the recent reviews focused their discussions on the controlled synthesis of NMNs and their biomedical[22,23] and energy applications.[5,21,24,25] It is timely to present a feature article on the recent development of NMNs with a particular focus on their environmental applications, which will be of interest to a broad readership in environmental science, engineering, analytical chemistry, and materials science. We will first discuss the unique properties that we could achieve from NMNs by engineering their attributes such as size, shape, composition, and surface, followed by a brief discussion on how to correlate the physicochemical properties of NMNs to their performance in environmental applications
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
