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Related: About this forumUF researchers look for ways to make an emerging technology (carbon nanotubes) safe for environment
http://news.ufl.edu/2012/03/21/nano-toxic/[font face=Times, Times New Roman, Serif][font size=5]UF researchers look for ways to make an emerging technology safe for environment[/font]
March 21, 2012
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Researchers at the University of Florida are looking for ways to minimize environmental hazards associated with a material likely to play an increasingly important role in the manufacture of these goods in the future. The results of their most recent studies are published in the March 2012 issue of Nanotoxicology.
Carbon nanotubes are already being used in touch screens and to make smaller, more efficient transistors. And if current research to develop them for use in lithium ion batteries is successful, carbon nanotubes could become important technology for powering everything from smartphones to hybrid vehicles. But for all of the promise developers see in this emerging technology, there is also some concern.
Depending on how the nanotubes are used, they can be toxic exhibiting properties similar to asbestos in laboratory mice, said Jean-Claude Bonzongo, associate professor of environmental engineering at UFs College of Engineering. He is involved in a research collaboration with Kirk Ziegler, a UF associate professor of chemical engineering, to minimize this important materials potential for harm.
A cost-effective means of unbundling nanotubes remains one of the last hurdles for manufacturers to clear before they can employ the technology in mass-produced electronics. Current processes used for laboratory prototypes, including mechanical homogenization or centrifugal sifting, would be too expensive for manufacturing consumer electronics. For that reason, liquid suspension agents may be the way forward if we are to have nano-tech products for the masses.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/17435390.2011.562329March 21, 2012
[font size=3]
Researchers at the University of Florida are looking for ways to minimize environmental hazards associated with a material likely to play an increasingly important role in the manufacture of these goods in the future. The results of their most recent studies are published in the March 2012 issue of Nanotoxicology.
Carbon nanotubes are already being used in touch screens and to make smaller, more efficient transistors. And if current research to develop them for use in lithium ion batteries is successful, carbon nanotubes could become important technology for powering everything from smartphones to hybrid vehicles. But for all of the promise developers see in this emerging technology, there is also some concern.
Depending on how the nanotubes are used, they can be toxic exhibiting properties similar to asbestos in laboratory mice, said Jean-Claude Bonzongo, associate professor of environmental engineering at UFs College of Engineering. He is involved in a research collaboration with Kirk Ziegler, a UF associate professor of chemical engineering, to minimize this important materials potential for harm.
A cost-effective means of unbundling nanotubes remains one of the last hurdles for manufacturers to clear before they can employ the technology in mass-produced electronics. Current processes used for laboratory prototypes, including mechanical homogenization or centrifugal sifting, would be too expensive for manufacturing consumer electronics. For that reason, liquid suspension agents may be the way forward if we are to have nano-tech products for the masses.
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UF researchers look for ways to make an emerging technology (carbon nanotubes) safe for environment (Original Post)
OKIsItJustMe
Mar 2012
OP
"exhibiting properties similar to asbestos in laboratory mice" - Great, another 'miracle' material.
PoliticAverse
Mar 2012
#1
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)1. "exhibiting properties similar to asbestos in laboratory mice" - Great, another 'miracle' material.
longship
(40,416 posts)2. Oh No-o-o-o! It's Grey Goo!
Grey goo
But what I really want is one of those super intelligent, self-reproducing robotic nanobots. I like sweet things sometimes. So, I'll say to them, "I'm feeling a little peckish, make me some chocolate chip cookies."
Then we can have the cookie apocalypse.
Insert Cookie Monster image here.
But what I really want is one of those super intelligent, self-reproducing robotic nanobots. I like sweet things sometimes. So, I'll say to them, "I'm feeling a little peckish, make me some chocolate chip cookies."
Then we can have the cookie apocalypse.
Insert Cookie Monster image here.
saras
(6,670 posts)3. The bad news: what it takes to answer their questions is a couple hundred years of research
Long-term effects don't even START showing up for decades, and at this point we have NO IDEA of what long-term effects to look for. So common sense would dictate that they are restricted to a narrow, observable environment until they prove safe in interactions with all kinds of natural environments, from windstorms to decades of rotting underground to accumulating over long periods of time in the environment.