What is Environmental Issue?

Any material, technology, or human act that has potential threat to the environment, constitute environmental issues. Scholars from several disciplines debate in an interdisciplinary set up and try to resolve the problems associated with environmental degradation.   

Environmental Issues in Nanotechnology

We come across a number of positive environmental aspects of nanotechnology including applications under development in solar energy, desalination, water purification and bioremediation. Nanotechnology has also the potential to create minimal waste, no solvent chemical processes with a much enhanced and efficient use of materials. Green Nanotechnology is concerned about the use of nanotechnology for sustainable development.

There exists another side of nanotechnology. Since the characteristics of nanoparticles are not well known at this point of time, new nanoparticles might impact on the environment during manufacture, use or disposal. There is a lot of debate concerning the mass scale manufacture of carbon nanotubes. Depending on the results of toxicity studies, disposal or recycling of products containing nanotubes may need to be carefully controlled to ensure containment. A lot of studies are going on in the area of Nanotoxicology.

To know more about the environmental issues associated with nanotechnology, please refer to the articles, presentations, and links available under “Resources”  in this website.

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