This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project seeks to develop innovative new uses and recycling strategies for waste products generated during nanomanufacturing. Preliminary chemical analysis suggest that on a mass basis, waste products can comprise greater than 99% of some nanomaterials production outputs. Further studies have shown that these materials are composed primarily of mixtures of amorphous carbon, nanomaterial aggregates, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, and residual metals such as copper or nickel, which are problematic in the environment. Despite being potentially harmful to humans and the environment, the chemical make-up of nanomanufacturing waste streams might actually impart useful material properties that make it more practical and lucrative to recover and re-use them than to dispose of them. Thus, in Phase I, Luna will determine whether waste by products from a commercial-scale process for manufacturing carbonaceous nanomaterials such as fullerenes and nanotubes have potentially useful material properties such as high conductivity, improved dispersibility, or thermal stability. This information then will be used to experimentally evaluate promising methods for recovering these materials either for re-use during the nanomanufacturing process or for application in useful products such as composites, coatings, and sealants.
While information on the environmental impacts of engineered nanomaterials is limited, the composition and toxicological effects of material intermediates and waste byproducts generated during some nanomanufacturing processes is altogether unknown. Initial studies, however, suggest that some potentially toxic constituents of nanomanufacturing wastes necessitate management strategies that prevent their release into the environment, either through recycling or alternative re-use. This unexplored area of nanotechnology health and safety poses significant challenges for public health officials, waste management authorities, and especially commercial manufacturers of nanomaterials. The knowledge gained and strategies devised under the proposed Phase I program will provide the nanomanufacturing industry with new approaches to managing nanomanufacturing wastes. Moreover, innovative new products may emerge to serve a variety of consumer markets.
