Physicochemical Characterizations of Nanoparticles Used for Bioenergy and Biofuel Production

Understanding the physicochemical properties of nanomaterials and how functionalizations modify their surface, altering their properties, is fundamental to defining better strategies of use. In fact, it is known that the surface characteristics of nanomaterials present batch-to-batch differences. Therefore, a good understanding of nanoparticle surface requires the use of several physicochemical and morphological techniques to adequately determine their shape, size and charge, as well as the presence of coatings and their functional groups. Furthermore, those parameters are crucial to determine acceptable differences of the surface chemistry that do not alter their properties and applications. Thus, in this chapter, we will discuss several physicochemical techniques that focus on nanoparticles for bioenergy and biofuel production.