ﻻ يوجد ملخص باللغة العربية
Nanotechnology is a so-called key-emerging technology that opens a new world of technological innovation. The novelty of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) raises concern over their possible adverse effect to man and the environment. Thereupon, risk assessors are challenged with ever decreasing times-to-market of nano-enabled products. Combined with the perception that it is impossible to extensively test all new nanoforms, there is growing awareness that alternative assessment approaches need to be developed and validated to enable efficient and transparent risk assessment of ENMs. Associated with this awareness, there is the need to use existing data on similar ENMs as efficiently as possible, which highlights the need of developing alternative approaches to fate and hazard assessment like predictive modelling, grouping of ENMs, and read across of data towards similar ENMs. In this contribution, an overview is given of the current state of the art with regard to categorization of ENMs and the perspectives for implementation in future risk assessment. It is concluded that the qualitative approaches to grouping and categorization that have already been developed are to be substantiated, and additional quantification of the current sets of rules-of-thumb based approaches is a key priority for the near future. Most of all, the key question of what actually drives the fate and effects of (complex) particles is yet to be answered in enough detail, with a key role foreseen for the surface reactivity of particles as modulated by the chemical composition of the inner and outer core of particles. When it comes to environmental categorization of ENMs we currently are in a descriptive rather than in a predictive mode.
The development of science-based categorization strategies for regulatory purposes is not a simple task. It requires understanding the needs and capacity of a wide variety of stakeholders and should consider the potential risks and unintended consequ
A new class of materials, Topological Crystalline Insulators (TCIs) have been shown to possess exotic surface state properties that are protected by mirror symmetry. These surface features can be enhanced if the surface-area-to-volume ratio of the ma
Molecular dynamics simulations play an increasingly important role in the rational design of (nano)-materials and in the study of biomacromolecules. However, generating input files and realistic starting coordinates for these simulations is a major b
Metal nano-aerogels combine a large surface area, a high structural stability, and a high catalytic activity towards a variety of chemical reactions. The performance of such nanostructures is underpinned by the atomic-level distribution of their cons
Wildfire is one of the biggest disasters that frequently occurs on the west coast of the United States. Many efforts have been made to understand the causes of the increases in wildfire intensity and frequency in recent years. In this work, we propos