Surfactant-assisted Ball Milling: a Novel Route to Novel Materials with Controlled Nanostructure - a Review

Controlled Structure nanomaterials have played important roles in the advancement of targeted drug-delivery, gene silencing, therapeutics, catalysis, water purification and optoelectronics. These are probably because of their convenient and versatile sizes and shapes, large specific surface area, desirable surface properties, high chemical reactivity and physical affinity as well as attractive opto-electrical and electro-magnetic properties. However, the synthesis of materials with controlled micro/nano-structures and desired surface properties have been remaining a challenging task. Various approaches have been proposed for the commercial production of nanostructured particles from solid state. Chemical methods to synthesis controlstructured nanoparticles from rare-earth solid compounds have numerous limitations. Recently, surfactant assisted high energy ball milling has been exploited for the synthesis of various nanomaterials, nanograins, and nanocomposites from solid bulk materials. Promising results have been obtained in terms of nanostructure assembly, micro/nano-environment, surface functionalities and dispersion. In high-energy ball milling, plastic deformation, cold-welding and fracture predominantly contribute to bring a change in size, shape and microenvironment of nanoparticles. This review systematically presented the basic concept and applications of surfactant assisted mechanical mill ing in the synthesis of various nanomaterials and nanocomposites.