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Nanotechnology offers immense promise for developing new technologies that are more sustainable than current technologies. All major industrial sectors have felt nanotechnology's impact, mainly from the incorporation of nanomaterials into their products. For example, nanotechnology has improved the design and performance of products in areas as diverse as electronics, medicine and medical devices, food and agriculture, cosmetics, chemicals, materials, coatings, energy, as well as many others. Moreover, the revenues from nanotechnology-enabled products are not trivial. For instance, Lux Research maintains that commercial sales in both Europe and the USA will attain revenues of over $1 trillion from nano-enabled products by 2015.The manufacturing of the nanomaterials for these products uses many processes equivalent to chemical manufacturing processes. As a result, manufacturing nanomaterials can produce either harmful pollutants or adverse environmental impacts similar to those from chemical manufacturing. Unlike the chemical industry, however, those same processes are not ingrained in the manufacturing of nanomaterials, and the opportunity exists at the initial design stage to purposely account for and mitigate out potentially harmful environmental impacts. While prevention has not been a priority in current industries, it can become a main concern for the new and future industries that manufacture nanomaterials on a bulk commercial scale. This is where green nanotechnology comes in.Green nanotechnology involves deliberate efforts aimed at developing meaningful and reasonable protocols for generating products and their associated production processes in a benign fashion. The goal is a conscious minimization of risks associated with the products of nanoscience. The green products of nanotechnology are those that are used in either direct or indirect environmental applications. Direct environmental applications provide benefits such as monitoring using nano-enabled sensors, remediation of hazardous waste sites with nanomaterials, or treatment of wastewater and drinking water with nanomaterials. Indirect environmental applications include, for example, the saved energy associated with either lighter nanocomposite materials in transport vehicles or reduced waste from smaller products.The production and process aspects of green nanotechnology involve both making nanomaterials in a more environmentally benign fashion and using nanomaterials to make current chemical processes more environmentally acceptable. Examples of producing nanomaterials in a 'greener manner' could involve but are not limited to the use of supercritical CO2, water, or ionic liquids to replace a volatile organic solvent. Either self-assembly or templating might also be used to eliminate waste in manufacturing. Renewables could be utilized as replacements for either nonrenewable and/or toxic starting materials. Microwave techniques might potentially help to conserve energy, as could both facile thermal and hydrothermal processes. Catalytic and photocatalytic reactions could also increase efficiency and decrease the formation of harmful byproducts. In addition, engineered nanomaterials themselves can be used as catalysts in current chemical processes and as separation membranes to aid in the efficiency of these operations. Furthermore, in order to be truly green, these products and processes must be considered within a lifecycle framework.The papers in this special issue are but a small sampling of the myriad of possibilities that green nanotechnology holds. In the nascent nanotechnology industry, green nanotechnology offers the opportunity to get it right in the first place. It is not too late to take Ben Franklin's words to heart, 'an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure'.
Chapter 18 - Updates on health and safety aspects of green nanomaterials
Chapter 18 - Updates on health and safety aspects of green nanomaterials
1Saúde & Segurança Ocupacional: reflexões sobre os riscos potenciais e o manuseio seguro dos nanomateriais
Every day the nanotechnology, that refers to a field whose theme is the control of matter on an atomic and molecular scale working with nanometric structures (<100 nm), is more present in the development of products and industrial processes. The particle manipulation of nanometric structures has created opportunities in the development of new products and materials. However, synthesis, handling, storage, stabilization and the incorporation of these materials, with nanometric dimensions, demand a new perspective of analysis and evaluation of old manufacturing processes, procedures and industrial devices, in order to guarantee collective and individual protection to workers and society. With the increasing of scale and production of nanoestrutuctured materials, a big part of labour community starts to be in contact with different nanomaterials (forms and ways). In this work the main aspects and involved risks of manufacture, storage, synthesis, stabilization and incorporation of nanomaterials on new products are evaluated in order to reduce, decrease and eliminate chemical, physical and biological risks for the employees. A bibliographic review was conducted about risk, safety and nanotechnology based on available English literature focusing safety and environmental agencies from different countries such as USA, Canada, EU (France, UK, Germany, Denmark), Australia and Japan.
Read more23Organometallic Nanomaterials Synthesis and Sustainable Green Nanotechnology Applications
Implementing sustainable green nanotechnology applications of organometallic nanomaterials would be the best way to resolve the present confrontations using environmentally benign solvents, reduce energy consumption, select renewable feedstock, eliminate wastage sources and design high-performance materials through theoretical predictions. This chapter presents an overview of the previous and present trends, status, and perspectives of synthetic routes for organometallic hybrid nanomaterials, including their background, composition, fabrication processes, and promising applications in sustainable green nanotechnology products. It addresses an inclusive analysis with a specific concentration on the advantages, drawbacks, and prospects of organometallic hybrid nanomaterials synthesized, especially for green and sustainable nanotechnology applications. The evolution of application-oriented organometallic nanomaterials is generally centered on selecting and screening substructure designs through computational approaches. In addition to the design and development of such nanomaterials, the defiance of production methods is fairly essential to consider.
Read more8Environmental Impacts of Nanotechnology and Its Products
Nanotechnology increases the strengths of many materials and devices, as well as enhances efficiencies of monitoring devices, remediation of environmental pollution, and renewable energy production.While these are considered to be the positive effect of nanotechnology, there are certain negative impacts of nanotechnology on environment in many ways, such as increased toxicological pollution on the environment due to the uncertain shape, size, and chemical compositions of some of the nanotechnology products (or nanomaterials).It can be vital to understand the risks of using nanomaterials, and cost of the resulting damage.It is required to conduct a risk assessment and full life-cycle analysis for nanotechnology products at all stages of products to understand the hazards of nanoproducts and the resultant knowledge that can then be used to predict the possible positive and negative impacts of the nanoscale products.Choosing right, less toxic materials (e.g., graphene) will make huge impacts on the environment.This can be very useful for the training and protection of students, as well as scientists, engineers, policymakers, and regulators working in the field.
Read more7Chapter 3 - Multidimensional Impacts of Nanotechnology on Public Health
Chapter 3 - Multidimensional Impacts of Nanotechnology on Public Health
1Special Section on “Nanotechnologies and the Consumer”
JCP Editors Lucia A. Reisch (Copenhagen Business School (CBS)) and Hans-W. Micklitz (European University Institute (EUI)) were organising a conference on “Nanotechnologies and the Consumer” which was held on the 5/6 December 2008 at the EUI in Florence. The conference brought together academics from a broad range of disciplines, namely: economics, history, natural science, law, and political science as well as policy makers and NGOs from all over Europe. The objective was to discuss the impact of nanotechnologies on consumer policy and law. The sessions were organized around the three topics: nano-ethics; the concept of risk in nanotechnologies; and policy and regulatory instruments. These topics were discussed within the fields of food, medical products, chemicals and pesticides, consumer products, and sustainable products. The Special Section compiles two law papers presented at the Florence conference: The article by Roger Brownsword discusses whether we need a distinctive “nano-ethics” and what the ethical issues of nanotechnologies are. Geraint Howells analyses the impact of product liability law on nanotechnologies. Furthermore, Harald Throne-Holst and Pal Strandbakken contribute with a note on how Norwegian consumers react to nano-enabled products in the absence of a regulatory framework. This Special Section is intended to launch further scholarly and political debate on “nanotechnologies and the consumer” and will hopefully inspire contributions to future issues of the Journal of Consumer Policy. J Consum Policy (2009) 32:353 DOI 10.1007/s10603-009-9113-x
Read more2Practical Issues In Commercial And Regulatory Development Of Nanotechnology, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
This paper discusses the exciting changes brought on by the development of new commercial products with nanomaterials from medical devices to roof coverings to new products and services to protect EHS as a result of regulatory changes. Not only do new products based upon nanotechnology result in an ever-increasing sophisticated business economic model, but the new regulatory efforts will mean growth in both products and services devoted to safety of EHS from the existence of nanotechnology products. From the literature the rate of growth/change is increasing over time. Major advances are occurring in cycles as short as five-years or less. It will not be long until the early products with nano-materials become obsolete. At that point consideration must be given to a safe way to either dispose of or recycle the obsolete nano product. At that time even further commercial opportunities will become present for a nanotechnology garbage collection service or nanotechnology recycling line of business.
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