ABSTRACT
The concept of chemical reaction involves direct contact between chemical species to promote the formation of new chemical bonds and new chemical compounds. Therefore, this implies a surface contact as large as possible to obtain optimum yields. When the reactor size is reduced at the nanolevel, molecules are in contact in a restricted space. This substantially increases the probability of contact between them. In some cases these nanoreactors provide specific environments in which chemical reactions could take place selectively. These environments can also promote chemical reactions otherwise unfavoured (Shchukin and Sviridov, 2006). Such devices minimize the energy consumption if one considers the increase of yields and the significant reduction of external inputs to facilitate chemical reactions. Such environments created by microemulsions (using block copolymers and other amphiphilic chemical compounds) are used classically (Jang and Ha, 2002), but they are limited by their lower stability. Mesoporous silica and zeolites are also used. These are characterized by pores of well-defined sizes whose internal surfaces may in some cases be functionalized (especially mesoporous silicas), or modified by metal nanoparticles in order to perform specific reactions (Salavati-Niasari, 2009; Fang et al., 2012). Unlike microemulsions or micelles, materials allow reactions in extreme environments due to their better physicochemical stabilities.
