SBIR Phase I: Alternative Products from Nanomanufacturing Wastes

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目旨在为纳米制造过程中产生的废物开发创新的新用途和回收策略。初步化学分析表明，在大量基础上，废物可占某些纳米材料生产产出的99%以上。进一步的研究表明，这些材料主要由无定形碳、纳米材料聚集体、多芳烃和铜或镍等残余金属的混合物组成，这些金属在环境中是有问题的。尽管对人类和环境有潜在的危害，纳米制造废料流的化学组成实际上可能赋予有用的材料特性，使回收和再利用它们比处理它们更实用、更有利可图。因此，在第一阶段，Luna将确定来自商业规模的碳质纳米材料（如富勒烯和纳米管）制造过程的废物副产品是否具有潜在的有用材料特性，如高导电性、改善的分散性或热稳定性。然后，这些信息将用于实验评估回收这些材料的有前途的方法，这些方法可以在纳米制造过程中重复使用，也可以用于复合材料、涂料和密封剂等有用产品。虽然关于工程纳米材料对环境影响的信息有限，但在一些纳米制造过程中产生的材料中间体和废物副产品的组成和毒理学效应是完全未知的。然而，最初的研究表明，纳米制造废物的一些潜在有毒成分需要管理策略，通过回收或替代再利用来防止它们释放到环境中。这一尚未开发的纳米技术健康和安全领域给公共卫生官员、废物管理当局，特别是纳米材料的商业制造商带来了重大挑战。在拟议的第一阶段计划下获得的知识和制定的策略将为纳米制造行业提供管理纳米制造废物的新方法。此外，创新的新产品可能会出现，以服务于各种消费市场。

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 materialproperties 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.