>
Spotlight May 2021: Towards safe and sustainable innovation in nanotechnology: State-of-play for smart nanomaterials
The European Commission’s new Action Plan for a Circular Economy Green Deal, the new European Industrial Strategy as well as the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability presented in October 2020 are ambitious plans to achieve a sustainable, fair and inclusive economy in the European Union. These strategies require that any new material or product must not only be functional and cost-efficient, but also safe and sustainable.
Nanotechnology is one of the technologies that could enable such green growth. This paper focuses on nanomaterials that actively respond to external stimuli, so-called “smart nanomaterials”. They are part of the broader category of “advanced materials”. It shows that smart nanomaterials and related products may pose new challenges for safety and sustainability assessment due to their complexity and dynamic behaviour. Innovators, scientists and authorities are called upon to further develop and promote the concept of “Safe and Sustainable-by-Design” in nanotechnology.
Original publication:
Gottardo, S., et al., Towards safe and sustainable innovation in nanotechnology: State-of-play for smart nanomaterials. NanoImpact, 2021. 21: p. 100297.
Weitere Spotlights
Spotlight February 2023: New sustainable and promising method to give cotton textiles an antiviral and antibacterial finish
Textiles have been the subject of research into functionalization for many years, especially also to repel bacteria and viruses. Since the development of nanotechnological processes, there have been many attempts to incorporate UV protection with nano-titanium dioxide, or to provide textiles with anti-bacterial properties with nanosilver (see cross-sectional text “Nanoparticles in Textiles”). But nanosilver has […]
Read moreSpotlight June 2023: New catalytic process for recovering important materials from composites in a single process
Previously virtually impossible and a huge problem: fibre-reinforced resin composites (epoxides) were not recyclable, and wind turbine rotor blades, for example, add up to a waste pile of 43 million tons by 2050. Researchers have now taken an important first step in “reprocessing” these composites and catalytically dissolving them so that the carbon fibres and […]
Read moreSpotlight November 2022: Photonics in nature and bioinspired designs
Science has always taken nature as a model and imitated it. If you look at the field of photonics, i.e. the use of optical technologies for information processing, transmission or storage, the colorful examples in the animal and plant world are perfect basic drawers for technical applications. While colors in nature are used either for […]
Read moreSpotlight April 2021: Nanomaterials and Fake News – a commentary based on an example
In February 2021, the article “The invisible killer lurking in our consumer products” appeared, describing nanoparticles as a greater danger than Corona [1]. “The use of nanomaterials” would be “unregulated” and “nanomaterials are so small that they cannot be determined once they are part of a product”. So what is the truth of these statements? […]
Read more