The increasing use of precious metals (gold, silver, others) in nanomaterials used in high-tech products can have an adverse impact on the environment because at all stages of a nanoproduct life cycle, these materials may be released into the environment and come in contact with the biosphere.
Alongside the project partners' efforts to understand the environmental fate, the eco- and human- toxicological behavior of metallic nanomaterials, and efforts to design safer forms of nanotechnology, our objective is demetallization of Ag NW - enabled devices directly, before end-of-life disposal, to increase environmental safety.
We are developping a recovery and recycling technique for Ag NW in consumer goods, capable of eliminating the environmental and toxicological risk of these materials entering an e-waste stream and at the same time allowing the recovery of nano Ag for further re-use, a solution combining sustainability and risk reduction.
General view (SEM image) of a Ag NW network of a conductive thin film (courtesy Brenda Omana Sanz)