Iron nanostructured catalysts: design and applications

Abstract

Iron nanostructures have attracted tremendous attention over the last few years as excellent catalysts applied in different areas. The cost-effectiveness and environmentally friendly advantages of using iron catalysts have made them an alternative to other transition-metals in many cases. In this vein, the development of new strategies to improve the efficiency of iron as a catalyst is mandatory. This review describes some of the strategies to synthesize magnetic iron nanoparticles and other iron nanostructures. Successful advances in the synthetic schemes have made these iron nanostructures tremendously interesting catalysts to apply to solve environmental problems, to improve electronic devices by creating new batteries, or to design biosensors by new artificial enzymes fabrication.