Nanoengineering (eBook)

Global Approaches to Health and Safety Issues

eBook Download: PDF | EPUB

2015 | 1. Auflage
736 Seiten
Elsevier Science (Verlag)
978-0-444-62745-2 (ISBN)

Nanoengineering: Global Approaches to Health and Safety Issues provides a global vision on the impact of engineered nanomaterials both for the consumer/general public and in occupational settings. The book also presents a hint on what can be expected for the future from nanomaterials and their effects on our lives, both at home and at work. In addition, users will find valuable information on nanomaterials' irreplaceable value and their risks for health, safety, and environmental issues. Case studies illustrate key points and provide information on important processes.

Provides a global vision on the different aspects related to nanosafety and a synthesis of the information available
Gives all the information required for precision decision-making in a single book, offering both general public and occupational aspects
Contains separate chapters on each subject written by world-renowned contributors
Presents a complete vision of the problem, with perspectives on global approaches
Includes case studies that illustrate important processes

Nanoengineering: Global Approaches to Health and Safety Issues provides a global vision on the impact of engineered nanomaterials both for the consumer/general public and in occupational settings. The book also presents a hint on what can be expected for the future from nanomaterials and their effects on our lives, both at home and at work. In addition, users will find valuable information on nanomaterials' irreplaceable value and their risks for health, safety, and environmental issues. Case studies illustrate key points and provide information on important processes. Provides a global vision on the different aspects related to nanosafety and a synthesis of the information available Gives all the information required for precision decision-making in a single book, offering both general public and occupational aspects Contains separate chapters on each subject written by world-renowned contributors Presents a complete vision of the problem, with perspectives on global approaches Includes case studies that illustrate important processes

Chapter 1.1

Nanomaterials Definitions, Classifications, and Applications

Patricia I. Dolez CTT Group, St-Hyacinthe, QC, Canada

Abstract

Even though the presence of nanotechnologies in man-made products can be traced back at least to the beginning of the Bronze Age, progress and discoveries made over the last 40 years have shed more light on the particularities of matter at the nanoscale level. They have also led to the more widespread use of nanotechnologies in a wide variety of commercial products, for example, in health, electronics, appliances, automobiles, and food. This chapter provides a general introduction on natural and anthropogenic nanomaterials. It starts with various definitions and classifications. Then, an overview of the particular properties of nanomaterials and the different synthesis methods is presented. This chapter ends with a description of some of their current and future applications.

Keywords

Applications; Classifications; Definitions; Nanomaterials; Properties; Synthesis

1. Definitions

According to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the prefix nano refers to a size ranging approximately from 1 to 100 nm [1]. As a comparison, the diameter of a carbon atom is about 0.25 nm, and the distance between carbon atoms is 0.15 nm. Nanomaterials are thus larger than single atoms or even small groups of atoms. Nature's examples of nano-sized objects include DNA molecules, which have a diameter of 25 nm, viruses, with the smallest identified one, parvovirus, being 25 nm wide, and proteins that are typically 10 nm long.

The use of nanotechnology is far from being new. For example, it was used around 2600 BC in dyes to impart color to fibers and fabrics [2]. Another example can be found in Middle Age churches, where stained glass artisans utilized nanoscopic scale (or nanoscale) gold and silver particles to impart ruby red and deep yellow color to window panels [3]. Another example is the Damascus steel produced by the twelfth to the eighteenth century Middle Eastern metalsmiths, which includes cementite nanowires inside carbon nanotubes [4]. At that time, they had no way to observe the nanostructures they created. More recently, carbon black has been employed since 1910 to reinforce tires, without knowing that it was the interaction between rubber and the nanoscale carbon black particles that imparted the tires with increased hardness, strength, abrasion, and tear resistance [5].

The first scientist to raise attention on nanotechnologies, even if the word was not coined yet, was Richard Feynman. In a talk he gave in 1959 at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society entitled “There's plenty of room at the bottom—An invitation to enter a new field of physics,” he challenged his fellow physicists to write the entire 24 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica on the head of a pin [6]. He also offered a $1000 price to the first person who would build a 1/64-cubic inch working electrical motor. It must be mentioned that this price was claimed not long afterward by a student, William McLellan, who constructed such a motor using the conventional, watch-making design [7].

The word nanotechnology was used for the first time in 1974 by Norio Taniguchi in reference to machining and finishing dimensional tolerances for semiconductor processes [8]. It is derived from the Greek word for dwarf and means a billionth of a unit. However, it was only after the development of the scanning tunneling microscope in 1981 by IBM researchers Gerd Binning and Heinrich Rohrer [9] that progress really kicked off; it was now possible to observe matter at the nanoscale. They were awarded a Nobel Prize in physics in 1986 for this discovery, which takes advantage of the quantum phenomenon exhibited by conductor and semiconductor materials at the nanoscale. Then, fullerenes were discovered in 1985 by Harold Kroto, Robert Curl, and Richard Smalley [10], who won a Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1996 for this achievement. The first controlled growth of carbon nanotubes is attributed to Sumio Lijima and his colleagues in 1991 [11].

Since that time, the use of nanoscale materials and structures in commercial products has largely increased. The worldwide market for nano-enabled products was valued at US$22.9 billion in 2013 [12]. It is expected to reach US$64.2 billion by 2019, with a compound annual growth rate of 19.8% between 2014 and 2019. The last update in 2013 of the Nanotechnology Consumer Products Inventory of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars has identified 1628 commercial nanoproducts, including 440 on the European market [13]. As knowledge about the potential dangers of nanomaterials as well as the need for standardization in this new field have increased too, efforts have been devoted to defining the terminology used, even if differences exist between countries. For example, according to ISO, nanomaterials are defined as materials with any external dimension in the nanoscale or having an internal structure or surface structure in the nanoscale [14], the nanoscale referring to a size ranging approximately from 1 to 100 nm [1]. On the other hand, the European Commission's recommendation on the definition of nanomaterial released in 2011 is “a natural, incidental or manufactured material containing particles, in an unbound state or as an aggregate or as an agglomerate and where, for 50% or more of the particles in the number size distribution, one or more external dimensions is in the size range 1–100 nm” [15]. They provide for exceptions for specific cases when concerns exist for environment, health, safety, or competitiveness, in which case the concentration threshold is reduced below 50%, and for fullerenes, graphene flakes and single wall carbon nanotubes with one or more external dimensions below 1 nm, which are considered nanomaterials regardless of concentration. Canada has also established its own working definition of nanomaterials, which are “any manufactured substance or product and any component material, ingredient, device, or structure […] if it is at or within the nanoscale in at least one external dimension, or has internal or surface structure at the nanoscale, or it is smaller or larger than the nanoscale in all dimensions and exhibits one or more nanoscale properties/phenomena” [16]. This last definition allows considering materials that are larger or smaller than the nanoscale range if they exhibit the properties or phenomena that are characteristic of the nanoscale dimension.

2. Classifications of Nanomaterials

Whatever the exact definition they are given, nanomaterials can be classified according to their source, their dimensions, and their constitutive materials. A classification has also been established according to their potential toxicity level [17].

2.1. Classification of Nanomaterials According to Origin

First, nanomaterials can be differentiated according to their origin: natural or anthropogenic. This last category can be divided into incidental and engineered nanomaterials, depending on whether their formation is intentional or not. Nanoparticles that have a natural and incidental origin are generally referred to as ultrafine particles. Natural sources of inorganic nanomaterials include, for example, erupting volcanoes, breaking sea waves, forest fires, sand storms, as well as soils [18]. For example, certain forms of clay are constituted of 1-nm-thick by 70- to 150-nm-wide stacked nanoplates. Some nanomaterials are also naturally found in living organisms, for example, biogenic magnetite, a ferromagnetic crystalline structure associated with magnetoreception in some animals, ferritin, an iron storage protein, and calcium hydroxyapatite, the hard nanocrystalline constituent of bones [19]. Fullerenes have even been recently discovered in space [20].

Nanomaterials can also be found as unintentional by-products of human activity. This includes, for example, internal combustion engines, power plants, incinerators, jet engines, metal fumes (smelting, welding, etc.), polymer fumes, heated surfaces, food transformation processes (baking, frying, broiling, grilling, etc.), and electric motors [21]. If the exposure resulting from motor vehicle emissions started to be documented at the end of the 1990s [22], only recently was the large prevalence of nanoparticle release by kitchen appliances [23] and laser printers [24] evidenced. The presence of potentially toxic nanoparticles in cigarette smoke was also lately demonstrated [25]. In terms of occupational exposure, arc welding and aluminum smelting have been shown to generate large amounts of airborne nanoparticles [26]. Conditions favoring the emission of incidental nanomaterials include the presence of vaporizable materials, a sufficiently high temperature to support vapor generation, and processes involving rapid cooling and a large temperature gradient [27].

Finally, nanomaterials are now manufactured using a large diversity of chemical constituents, for example, metals, semiconductors, metal oxides, carbon, and polymers. They are designed for specific functionalities and can be surface treated or coated. They come...

Erscheint lt. Verlag	26.5.2015
Sprache	englisch
Themenwelt	Naturwissenschaften ► Chemie
	Technik ► Elektrotechnik / Energietechnik
	Technik ► Maschinenbau
ISBN-10	0-444-62745-6 / 0444627456
ISBN-13	978-0-444-62745-2 / 9780444627452

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