The use of castor oil and ricinoleic acid in lead chalcogenide nanocrystal synthesis

Portrait of a UK-Africa Capacity Building Initiative Consortium 2015-2022: the Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa and United Kingdom Materials Initiative (CaGSUMI) for developing materials for solar cells

The CaGSUMI consortium was funded by the Royal Society-Department for International Development (later the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office) on the Africa Capacity Building Initiative programme between the years 2015 and 2022 and involved three Sub-Saharan African universities: Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana, University of Yaoundé I, Cameroon, and the University of Zululand, South Africa; and the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. The project was used to cement an emergent UK-Africa network in the areas of materials chemistry related to renewable energy generation with both thin films and nanomaterials. The consortium's outputs led to numerous publications of African science in international journals, a number of graduated PhDs who went on to permanent academic positions and prestigious fellowships, the establishment of a capacity-building plan relevant to the chemistry departments in each of the African countries, and the installation of a number of first-in-kind pieces of kit for African laboratories that will keep them on a competitive footing at an international level for the next decade and more.

Castor oil: a suitable green source of capping agent for nanoparticle syntheses and facile surface functionalization

Castor oil (CO) is an inedible vegetable oil (VO) that has been employed extensively as a bioresource material for the synthesis of biodegradable polymers, cosmetics, lubricants, biofuels, coatings and adhesives. It is used in medicine, pharmaceuticals and biorefineries, due to its versatile chemistry. However, there has been less focus on CO as an alternative to toxic and expensive solvents, and capping/stabilizing agents routinely used in nanoparticle syntheses. It provides a richer chemistry than edible VOs as a solvent for green syntheses of nanoparticles. CO, being the only rich source of ricinoleic acid (RA), has been used as a solvent, co-solvent, stabilizing agent and polyol for the formation of polymer-nanoparticle composites. RA is a suitable alternative to oleic acid used as a capping and/or stabilizing agent. Unlike oleic acid, it provides a facile route to the functionalization of surfaces of nanoparticles and the coating of nanoparticles with polymers. For applications requiring more polar organic solvents, RA is more preferred than oleic acid. In this review, we discuss the production, chemical and physical properties, triglyceride and fatty acid (FA) compositions and applications of CO, focusing on the use of CO and RA as well as other VOs and FAs in syntheses of nanoparticles and surface functionalization.