Self aggregating metal surfactant complexes: Precursors for nanostructures

• Metallosurfactants as nanoreactors are advantageous over conventional nanofabrication routes.
• Synthetic procedure is general and could be applied to get nanocrystals for several metals.
• Precise control over nanostructure morphology and size by changing only metallosurfactant ratio.

Metallosurfactants or metal surfactant complexes have been the focus of interest in recent years owing to the advancement in the field of interdisciplinary research. These complexes exemplify a perfect blend of organometallic chemistry and interface science. They display the properties characteristic to both, a surfactant (self assembly and surface activity) and a metal ion (redox and catalytic property). Exploiting the properties arising out of this interesting class of compounds can lead to fascinating applications. The metallosurfactants apart from being excellent catalytic systems can most certainly be used in metal nanoparticle synthesis. Because of the supramolecular assemblies formed, particularly micelles and vesicles, they are promising candidates as nanosized reactors. The synthetic route involving metallosurfactant has got several advantages over conventional methods for nanoparticle fabrication. Metallosurfactant can itself act as a metal ion source and nanoparticle protector, thereby eliminating the need for a capping agent. The present review focuses on the use of metallosurfactants in the field of nanochemistry. Metallosurfactants have been reviewed with an aim to present them as scaffolds for nanomaterials, revealing their advantages over conventional nanostructure fabrication methods.

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