Heating 1,2-, 1,3- and 1,4-diols with zinc nitrate hexahydrate at 120 °C, delivers
explosively, after few minutes, zinc oxide nanoparticles as well as gaseous products
such as hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon oxides. They are suspected of being responsible
for the formation of nanoparticles. The observed reactivity is dependent upon the
alkyl substitution on the diols that leads to suspect but does not prove the formation
of organometallic intermediates.
