Developing trends in nanomaterials and their environmental implications

Nature Nanotechnology (2023)Cite this article

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Nanotechnology is advancing at an accelerated pace in applications and novel nanomaterials. To become an enabling technology for a more sustainable society, we identify and assess nanomaterials and applications trends with potentially significant environmental implications.

Although there has already been considerable development of novel nanomaterials and applications in the past two or three decades, nanotechnology continues to be the source of tremendous innovation, with exciting new applications appearing rapidly. Important questions for researchers working on the potential benefits and implications of nanomaterials are: What is the projected growth for different nanomaterials? Which ones will likely become more available in the coming decade? What are the fastest-growing applications? Which applications are more likely to have environmental implications? Where will nanomaterials end up? Will a circular economy develop for nanomaterials1?

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Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, UCSB, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

Arturo A. Keller & Alex Ehrens

Empa-Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, St. Gallen, Switzerland

Yuanfang Zheng & Bernd Nowack

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Correspondence to Arturo A. Keller.

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Keller, A.A., Ehrens, A., Zheng, Y. et al. Developing trends in nanomaterials and their environmental implications. Nat. Nanotechnol. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-023-01409-z

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Published: 06 June 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-023-01409-z

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