Abstract

Nowadays, nanomaterials make their way in a wide variety of applications where downsizing truly brings about new or improved features that can be immediately exploited for some practical use. These applications encompass fields as disparate as medicine, biology, energy conversion and storage, catalysis, sensing, nanocomposite engineering, and cosmetics, to name the main ones. Nevertheless, a foreseen technological revolution triggered by a ubiquitous infiltration of nanomaterials into an everyday life has not happened yet. One of the possible reasons of this is the lack of straightforward and reproducible synthetic protocols providing large amounts of nanoparticles (NPs) and thus capable of efficient up-scaling to fulfil industrial needs. Another reason might be the growing concern that NPs will become a new threat to the environment.