Green Chemistry and Nanochemistry — Important Questions

Water, Supercritical CO₂

Green solvents like water and supercritical CO₂ are preferred over volatile halogenated organic solvents such as CH₂Cl₂, CHCl₃, and CCl₄, which are hazardous to health and environment.

Development that meets present needs without compromising future generations

Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs while protecting the world's resources.

X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), UV-visible spectroscopy, FTIR spectroscopy

XRD provides crystal structure and particle size, SEM shows surface morphology, UV-vis confirms nanoparticle formation, and FTIR identifies functional groups. Simple visual observation cannot characterize nanomaterials.

Higher surface-to-volume ratio provides more reaction sites

When bulk material is subdivided into nanoparticles, total volume remains same but collective surface area increases dramatically, providing more reaction sites and leading to higher catalytic activity.