Innovative One-Step Sustainable Process to Produce Simonkolleite Nanoparticles

The aim of the present paper is to propose an innovative, one-step and sustainable process allowing us to obtain almost 10 kg/week of pure and crystalline simonkolleite nanoparticles (SK NPs) in only 8 min of reaction, working in water, under ambient conditions of pressure/temperature, guaranteeing at the same time low environmental impact and a high yield of NP production. In addition, the obtained NPs can also act as ZnO precursors at ambient temperature, and this result supports the sustainability of the process considering that, generally, the production of ZnO from SK occurred via annealing at high temperatures. The SK NPs appeared pure and crystalline, characterized by a highly uniform hexagonal lamellar feature. Each lamella is composed of an ordered assembly of very small monodispersed primary NPs, with a size in the range 3-8 nm. The SK NPs exhibited a surface area of up to 41 m²/g, the highest value recorded in the literature, revealing that pore size distribution mainly peaked between 3 and 20 nm.