Issue 8, 2025

Green beginnings: creating an affordable advanced enquiry-based experimental nanochemistry learning module with catalytically active ‘green’ iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs)

Abstract

In the following report, we disclose an affordable, scalable, and ‘green’ inaugural experiment for a nanochemistry and nanomaterials teaching laboratory course. Iron oxide NPs (IONPs) generated through co-precipitation is a well-known class of nanomaterials. They combine a relatively simple synthesis with an abundance of pedagogy-friendly functional properties such as energy band-gap, surface charge and capping ligand properties, size, morphology, crystal phase, and magnetic behaviour. Additionally, catalytic behaviour shown by IONPs in Fenton-type reactions provides us with an easy application suitable for the undergraduate laboratory. This month-long synthesis, purification, characterization, and application ‘mini-project’ is meant for inclusion in upper-division courses in inorganic chemistry or materials science. We believe that it sets students up for success in and outside a teaching laboratory and can be implemented in the first weeks of a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) as a way to acquaint students to the necessary skills to engage in authentic research. This project is also in close alignment with the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDG) numbers 4 (Quality Education for All) and 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation).

Graphical abstract: Green beginnings: creating an affordable advanced enquiry-based experimental nanochemistry learning module with catalytically active ‘green’ iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs)

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
07 Feb 2025
Accepted
04 May 2025
First published
06 May 2025
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

RSC Sustainability, 2025,3, 3437-3447

Green beginnings: creating an affordable advanced enquiry-based experimental nanochemistry learning module with catalytically active ‘green’ iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs)

T. Schwantes, D. Medina, B. Morgan and A. Banerjee, RSC Sustainability, 2025, 3, 3437 DOI: 10.1039/D5SU00083A

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