Safe and sustainable development of advanced materials
This journal article considers the benefits and barriers to the commercialisation of advanced materials.
Documents
Details
- Country: UK
- Document type: Journal article
- Theme: Advanced materials
- Authors: Charles A. Clifford, Delphine Bard, Fernando A. Castro, Gareth S. Evans, Mark Gee, Samantha Hall, Stephanie Kitchen, Denis Koltsov, Alex Price, Rachel Smith and Fatima Nasser
Abstract
Drawing on two workshops, the authors discuss advanced materials (AMs), a term used widely to cover many diverse new innovative materials, including nanomaterials, composites, surface coatings, (bio)polymers, porous and particle systems, ceramics, smart and metamaterials, and fibres and textiles. The commercial and performance advantages of AMs are considered in the light of their potential environmental and health and safety issues, for example around exposure, toxicity, sustainability and waste.
Background
Representatives from government, academia, industry and research organisations came together to share views on AMs at two online workshops in April 2021 and February 2023. At each event, scene-setting presentations by experts were followed by discussions of the benefits and barriers to the commercialisation of AMs. The first workshop served as the starting point and looked at the potential societal benefits of AMs and perceived obstacles to their wider adoption. The second workshop focused on safety by design, life cycle analysis, and the challenges faced at different points in the supply chain, particularly those specific to small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The workshops provided a unique opportunity for policy makers, regulators, standardisation bodies, funding bodies and academia to understand the concerns of industry and researchers. This included what they felt would help support them in their aims of developing innovative, commercially successful, safe and sustainable AMs.
The Office for Product Safety and Standards participated in both workshops and the cross-government collaboration, and its contribution is acknowledged in the article.
Citation
Charles A. Clifford and others. ‘Safe and sustainable development of advanced materials: UK National Knowledge Sharing Network Workshops’ Environmental Science: Nano, January 2025