Metal nanoparticles have superior properties for a variety of applications. In many cases, the improved performance of metal nanoparticles is tightly correlated with their size and atomic composition. To date, colloidal synthesis is the most commonly used technique to produce metal nanoparticles. However, colloidal synthesis is currently a laboratory scale technique that has not been applied at larger scales. One of the greatest challenges facing large-scale colloidal synthesis of metal nanoparticles is the large volume of long-chain hydrocarbon solvents and surfactants needed for the synthesis, which can dominate the cost of nanoparticle production. In this work, we demonstrate a protocol, based on solvent distillation, which enables the reuse of colloidal nanoparticle synthesis surfactants and solvents for over 10 rounds of successive syntheses and demonstrates that pure solvents and surfactants are not necessarily needed to produce uniform nanocrystals. We show that this protocol can be applied to the production of a wide variety of mono- and bimetallic nanoparticles with reproducible sizes and compositions, which leads to reproducible performance as heterogeneous catalysts. A techno-economic assessment demonstrates the potential of this technique to greatly reduce the solvent-related costs of colloidal metal nanoparticle synthesis, which could contribute to its wider application at commercial scale.

中文翻译：

---

溶剂的回收允许多轮可重复的纳米粒子合成

金属纳米粒子具有适用于各种应用的优越性能。在许多情况下，金属纳米粒子的改进性能与其尺寸和原子组成密切相关。迄今为止，胶体合成是生产金属纳米颗粒最常用的技术。然而，胶体合成目前是一种实验室规模的技术，尚未大规模应用。金属纳米粒子的大规模胶体合成面临的最大挑战之一是合成所需的大量长链烃溶剂和表面活性剂，这可能主导纳米粒子的生产成本。在这项工作中，我们展示了一个基于溶剂蒸馏的协议，这使得胶体纳米粒子合成表面活性剂和溶剂能够重复使用超过 10 轮连续合成，并证明不一定需要纯溶剂和表面活性剂来产生均匀的纳米晶体。我们表明，该协议可应用于生产各种具有可重复尺寸和成分的单金属和双金属纳米粒子，从而导致作为非均相催化剂的可再现性能。技术经济评估表明，该技术有可能大大降低胶体金属纳米颗粒合成的溶剂相关成本，这可能有助于其在商业规模上的更广泛应用。我们表明，该协议可应用于生产各种具有可重复尺寸和成分的单金属和双金属纳米粒子，从而导致作为非均相催化剂的可再现性能。技术经济评估表明，该技术有可能大大降低胶体金属纳米颗粒合成的溶剂相关成本，这可能有助于其在商业规模上的更广泛应用。我们表明，该协议可应用于生产各种具有可重复尺寸和成分的单金属和双金属纳米粒子，从而导致作为非均相催化剂的可再现性能。技术经济评估表明，该技术有可能大大降低胶体金属纳米颗粒合成的溶剂相关成本，这可能有助于其在商业规模上的更广泛应用。