Process intensification of dendritic fibrous nanospheres of silica (DFNS) via continuous flow: a scalable and sustainable alternative to the conventional batch synthesis

• Karuna Veeramani^abc
• Nagaraj Nayak^a
• Neil R. Cameron^c
• Anil Kumar^*a

• ^aDepartment of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IITB), Powai, Mumbai-400076, India
• ^bIITB-Monash Research Academy, Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IITB), Powai, Mumbai-400076, India
• ^cIITB-Monash Research Academy, Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IITB), Powai, Mumbai-400076, India

In this manuscript, we report the scalable continuous flow synthesis of dendritic fibrous nanospheres of silica (DFNS) which have been speedily making a significant mark in the world of heterogeneous nanocatalysis for over a decade by virtue of their unique morphology. Further, this work also demonstrates the telescoping of the complete process intensification of this material through combination of scalable reactors like the spinning disk reactor and the dynamically agitated tubular reactor. This intensified synthetic protocol performed through continuous flow chemistry is a scalable, efficient, feasible, quicker, and sustainable route of synthesis. Interestingly, this protocol is generic and may be easily extrapolated to the process intensification of a wide range of similar hydrothermal biphasic nanoparticle systems, thus widening the horizons of controlled, intensified, and sustainable production of nanomaterials.

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