摘要
One of the impact promises associated with nanotechnology is that it will facilitate greener and more sustainable economic growth. We explore the extent to which nanotechnology development and commercialization is achieving this goal, drawing on secondary sources and available data. After defining the concepts of nanotechnology and green and sustainable development, we examine six nanotechnology application areas that are pertinent to green growth and sustainability. These application areas are assessed relative to their scale and scope through market forecasts, green benefits and potential issues and limitations. These six application areas are: nano-enabled solar cells, energy storage, nanogenerators, thermal energy, fuel catalysis, and water treatment. Nanotechnology-enabled applications in these areas offer potential benefits, such as reduced costs, less toxicity, greater efficiency, operating frequency, voltage, reduced complexity, and reliability. However, many sales forecasts associated with these applications have been adjusted downwards not only as a result of the economic downturn in the first decade of the 2000s but also due to the limited value offered by these nanotechnology-enabled application compared to what is already on the market (the incumbent technology). We find that while green nanotechnologies have the potential to make contributions both to addressing green challenges and to fostering sustainable economic development, development and diffusion is taking longer than previously anticipated, and in some cases the promised scale of benefits is unlikely to be realized. Additionally, the potential life cycle environmental overheads of some complex engineered nanomaterials must be taken more fully into account in assessing net contributions to green growth.
中文摘要
与纳米技术相关的影响承诺之一是，它将促进更环保、更可持续的经济增长。我们利用二手资料和现有数据，探讨纳米技术的开发和商业化在多大程度上实现了这一目标。在定义了纳米技术以及绿色和可持续发展的概念之后，我们研究了与绿色增长和可持续性相关的六个纳米技术应用领域。通过市场预测、绿色效益以及潜在问题和限制，对这些应用领域的规模和范围进行评估。这六个应用领域是：纳米太阳能电池、储能、纳米发电机、热能、燃料催化和水处理。纳米技术在这些领域的应用提供了潜在的好处，如降低成本、降低毒性、提高效率、工作频率、电压、降低复杂性和可靠性。然而，与这些应用程序相关的许多销售预测都被下调了，这不仅是由于2000年代第一个十年的经济衰退，还因为与市场上已有的应用程序（现有技术）相比，这些纳米技术应用程序提供的价值有限。我们发现，尽管绿色纳米技术有潜力为应对绿色挑战和促进可持续经济发展做出贡献，但开发和推广所需的时间比之前预期的要长，在某些情况下，承诺的效益规模不太可能实现。此外，在评估对绿色增长的净贡献时，必须更充分地考虑一些复杂工程纳米材料的潜在生命周期环境管理费用。
