{"id":1352,"date":"2022-01-03T00:01:54","date_gmt":"2022-01-02T23:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lms.nanoproject.eu\/lms\/?post_type=unit&p=1352"},"modified":"2022-01-03T00:01:54","modified_gmt":"2022-01-02T23:01:54","slug":"a-cleaner-and-more-sustainable-environment","status":"publish","type":"unit","link":"https:\/\/lms.nanoproject.eu\/lms\/unit\/a-cleaner-and-more-sustainable-environment\/","title":{"rendered":"A cleaner and more sustainable environment"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Now that you have learned that nanotechnology can help us achieve the goals of \u00a0the European Green Deal and transition to a circular economy, it is important to understand how nanotechnology can facilitate reaching these goals.<\/p>\n

Nanomaterials can help us reduce the environmental burden and industrial and agricultural wastes, as well as \u00a0control pollution. First, environmental burden reduction involves green process and engineering, emissions control, desulfurization\/denitrification of nonrenewable energy sources, and improvement of agriculture and food systems. Second, reduction\/treatment of industrial and agricultural wastes involves converting wastes into products, groundwater remediation, adsorption, delaying photocatalysis, and nanomembranes. Regarding water pollution control, nanomaterials alter physical properties on a nanoscale due to their high specific surface area to volume ratio. They are used as catalysts, adsorbents, membranes, and additives to increase activity and capability due to their high specific surface areas and nano-sized effects. In brief, nanomaterials are more effective at treating environmental wastes because they reduce the amount of material needed<\/strong> (Shan et al<\/em>. 2009). As we learned before, reducing the amount of material needed is very important since the supply of raw materials is finite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Remember<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Nano reducing environmental waste<\/strong><\/p>\n

N<\/strong>anomaterials are more effective at treating environmental wastes because they reduce the amount of material needed. <\/strong>As we learned before, reducing the amount of material needed is very important since the supply of raw materials is finite.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Nano-engineering of aluminum, steel, asphalt, concrete and other cementitious materials, and their recycled forms offers great promise in terms of improving the performance, resiliency, and longevity of highway and transportation infrastructure components while reducing their life cycle cost. New systems may incorporate innovative capabilities into traditional infrastructure materials, such as self-repairing structures or the ability to generate or transmit energy (NNI, 2018). This directly contributes to achieving a circular economy by expanding the lifetime of products<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Nanoscale sensors and devices may provide cost-effective continuous monitoring of the structural integrity and performance of bridges, tunnels, rails, parking structures, and pavements over time. Nanoscale sensors, communications devices, and other innovations enabled by nanoelectronics can also support an enhanced transportation infrastructure that can communicate with vehicle-based systems to help drivers maintain lane position, avoid collisions, adjust travel routes to avoid congestion, and improve drivers\u2019 interfaces to onboard electronics (NNI, 2018).<\/p>\n

In addition, there are also many ways that nanotechnology can help detect and clean up environmental contaminants. For instance, nanotechnology can help with low-cost detection and treatment of impurities in water.\u00a0Engineers have developed a thin film membrane with nanopores for energy-efficient desalination. This molybdenum disulphide (MoS2<\/sub>) membrane filtered two to five times more water than current conventional filter<\/strong>s (NNI, 2021).<\/p>\n

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Researchers have also developed a nanofabric “paper towel” woven from tiny wires of potassium manganese oxide that can absorb 20 times its weight in oil for cleanup applications<\/strong>. Researchers have also placed magnetic water-repellent nanoparticles in oil spills and used magnets to mechanically remove the oil from the water (NNI, 2021).<\/p>\n

Moreover, many airplanes\u2019 cabins filtres and other types of air filters are nanotechnology-based filters that allow \u201cmechanical filtration,\u201d in which the fiber material creates nanoscale pores that trap particles larger than the size of the pores. The filters also may contain charcoal layers that remove odors (NNI, 2021).<\/p>\n

As well, nanotechnology-enabled sensors and solutions are now able to detect and identify chemical or biological agents in the air and soil with much higher sensitivity than ever before. One example is a sensor developed by NASA as a smartphone extension that firefighters can use to monitor air quality around fires (NNI, 2021).<\/p>\n

Thus, nanotechnology can help us achieve a cleaner and more sustainable environment in a more efficient way, from treating environmental waste to filtering water and air. Nanomaterials are more effective at treating environmental wastes because they reduce the amount of material needed As well, nano-engineering of materials can make our cities infrastructures more sustainable by increasing the lifecycle of infrastructures such as pavement or bridges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Remember<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Nanotechnology and clean water<\/strong><\/p>\n

Engineers have developed a thin film membrane with nanopores for energy-efficient desalination. This molybdenum disulphide (MoS2<\/sub>) membrane filtered two to five times more water than current conventional filters.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vibebp_attr":"","_vibebp_dimensions":"","_vibebp_responsive_height":"","_vibebp_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"module-tag":[],"class_list":["post-1352","unit","type-unit","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lms.nanoproject.eu\/lms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unit\/1352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lms.nanoproject.eu\/lms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unit"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lms.nanoproject.eu\/lms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/unit"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lms.nanoproject.eu\/lms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lms.nanoproject.eu\/lms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1352"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lms.nanoproject.eu\/lms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unit\/1352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1381,"href":"https:\/\/lms.nanoproject.eu\/lms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unit\/1352\/revisions\/1381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lms.nanoproject.eu\/lms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"module-tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lms.nanoproject.eu\/lms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/module-tag?post=1352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}