A Survey on Analytical Methods for the Characterization of Green Synthesized Nanomaterials

Abstract

Nowadays, nanotechnologies are well established and the uses of a great variety of nanomaterials show exponential growth. The development of green synthesis procedures experienced a great development thanks to the contribution of researchers of diverse origins. The versatility of green chemistry allows producing a wide range of organic and inorganic nanomaterials with numerous promising applications. In all cases, it is of paramount importance to carefully characterize the resulting nanomaterials because their properties will determine their correct performance to accomplish the function to which they were synthesized or even their detrimental effects like nanotoxicological behavior. This review provides an overview of frequently employed characterization methods and their applications for green synthesized nanomaterials. However, while several different nanoscale materials and their associated green construction methodology are being developed, other important techniques would be extensively incorporated into this field soon. The aim is to encourage researchers in the field to employ a variety of these techniques for achieving an exhaustive characterization of new nanomaterials and for contributing to the development of validated green synthesis procedures.