Case studies look at environmental impacts on a nanoscale

Nanotechnology offers opportunities to develop everything from medicines to technologies to tackle the climate threat. The new programme Mistra Environmental Nanosafety aims to promote sustainable use of nanomaterials. In 2015, three case studies were launched to look into undesirable environmental effects of the nanomaterials tungsten carbide and silica (silicon dioxide, used in papermaking), and to explore ways of working with graphene, a key material of the future, that will prevent problems arising.

‘We want to promote a responsible approach to both nanomaterials and other chemicals that could end up in the environment. The focus will be on whether nanomaterials pose any particular environmental risks and, if so, what they are,’ says the programme’s director, Sofia Svedhem at Chalmers University of Technology.