Editorial pubs.acs.org/cm
Going with the Flow: Continuous Flow Routes to Colloidal Nanoparticles
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ultrasound from a submerged nebulizer to produce droplets of a precursor solution (Figure 1a).4
olution-phase reactions to colloidal inorganic nanoparticles can now realize an exquisite level of control over the size, size dispersion, shape, and reproducibility of the resulting materials. This high level of control has been achieved through detailed mechanistic studies of precursor conversion, a better understanding of impurities present in solvents and ligands used in synthesis, and the continued development of new chemistries for colloidal inorganic nanoparticle synthesis. While a great deal has been achieved in this field over the past 35 years, the vast majority of work has been performed in low throughput, small-scale batch reactions that result in milligrams to multiple grams of product at most, and often at relatively modest concentrations (