Safe(r) by Design of Nanomaterials: the Role of Speciation
Résumé
To address concerns about the safety of nanomaterials, the use of the safe(r) by design is attracting increasing interest in the development of these materials. Indeed, to reduce the risk associated with nanomaterials, the strategy consists in reducing the hazard or the exposure or both. While lowering the hazard may not be an option without comprising the functionality, reducing the exposure is usually easier to achieve. This often translates to design materials in which the active (and potentially hazardous) nanoparticle is surrounded by a shell /embedded in a matrix to protect against harmful effects and/or prevent release from the material.
The effectiveness of this strategy rest on the stability of the composite, i.e. the strength of the bond between the nanoparticle and its shells as well as the resistance of the shell(s)/matrix during the use and end-of-life phases of the nano-enabled products. The material stability is examined after real/simulated aging with element specific probes. Here we present some examples taken from case studies using off the shelf products on how surface speciation informs about the efficiency of the product formulation in a safe(r) by design perspective.