Microwaves in the synthesis of nanomaterials

Abstract

During the last decades, different ways of obtaining nanomaterials (materials that have particle sizes up to 100,000 times smaller than a human hair have been studied. Traditional synthesis methods require high temperatures and pressures in order to obtain specific characteristics such as crystallinity, that is, the arrangement that atoms have when they form a structure. To obtain high temperatures, convection or conduction techniques are used, which usually take several days for the desired result. That is why it is important to look for routes that are easy, fast, economical, and commercially viable to produce nanomaterials; currently, one of the most important is the use of microwave irradiation (exposure to radiation).