Transition metal nanoparticles in ionic liquids: Synthesis and stabilization

Ionic liquids represent a special class of environmental benign compounds that have gained significant courtesy in the fields of materials science, chemical engineering, bioscience and modern synthetic chemistry. Because of their environmentally sustainable behaviour, they have been widely used as solvents for various chemical transformations for the compounds having biological, industrial and pharmaceutical applications. Literature survey revealed that several transition metal nanoparticles (TMNPs) have also been synthesized using numerous precursors in several classes of ionic liquids. Present review article describes the collection of some major reports that have been published on the synthesis and stabilization of TMNPs in ionic liquids. Several methods such as plasma process, exploding wire method, gamma radiation, microwave irradiation, ultrasound (sonochemical) irradiation, supercritical fluids method, pulsed laser ablation and chemical vapour deposition are widely used for the synthesis of TMNPs. Generally, ionic liquids used as solvents for the synthesis of TMNPs acted as stabilizers for them and also inference their shape and size. This review article also describes the solvation and stabilization of TMNPs in different classes of ionic liquids along with their characterization techniques and applications in catalysis.