Nizam Nurul Umairah M, Hanafiah Marlia M, Woon Kok Sin
Department of Earth Sciences and Environment, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi 43600, Selangor, Malaysia.
Centre for Tropical Climate Change System, Institute of Climate Change, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi 43600, Selangor, Malaysia.
Nanomaterials (Basel). 2021 Dec 7;11(12):3324. doi: 10.3390/nano11123324.
This paper provides a comprehensive review of 71 previous studies on the life cycle assessment (LCA) of nanomaterials (NMs) from 2001 to 2020 (19 years). Although various studies have been carried out to assess the efficiency and potential of wastes for nanotechnology, little attention has been paid to conducting a comprehensive analysis related to the environmental performance and hotspot of NMs, based on LCA methodology. Therefore, this paper highlights and discusses LCA methodology's basis (goal and scope definition, system boundary, life cycle inventory, life cycle impact assessment, and interpretation) to insights into current practices, limitations, progress, and challenges of LCA application NMs. We found that there is still a lack of comprehensive LCA study on the environmental impacts of NMs until end-of-life stages, thereby potentially supporting misleading conclusions, in most of the previous studies reviewed. For a comprehensive evaluation of LCA of NMs, we recommend that future studies should: (1) report more detailed and transparent LCI data within NMs LCA studies; (2) consider the environmental impacts and potential risks of NMs within their whole life cycle; (3) adopt a transparent and prudent characterization model; and (4) include toxicity, uncertainty, and sensitivity assessments to analyze the exposure pathways of NMs further. Future recommendations towards improvement and harmonization of methodological for future research directions were discussed and provided. This study's findings redound to future research in the field of LCA NMs specifically, considering that the release of NMs into the environment is yet to be explored due to limited understanding of the mechanisms and pathways involved.
本文全面回顾了2001年至2020年（共19年）期间关于纳米材料生命周期评估（LCA）的71项先前研究。尽管已经开展了各种研究来评估纳米技术废物的效率和潜力，但基于LCA方法，对纳米材料的环境绩效和热点进行全面分析的关注却很少。因此，本文重点介绍并讨论了LCA方法的基础（目标和范围定义、系统边界、生命周期清单、生命周期影响评估和解释），以洞察LCA在纳米材料应用中的当前实践、局限性、进展和挑战。我们发现，在所审查的大多数先前研究中，直到纳米材料的寿命结束阶段，仍缺乏关于其环境影响的全面LCA研究，从而可能支持误导性结论。为了对纳米材料的LCA进行全面评估，我们建议未来的研究应：（1）在纳米材料LCA研究中报告更详细和透明的LCI数据；（2）考虑纳米材料在其整个生命周期内的环境影响和潜在风险；（3）采用透明和审慎的特征化模型；（4）纳入毒性、不确定性和敏感性评估，以进一步分析纳米材料的暴露途径。讨论并提供了关于改进和协调未来研究方向方法的未来建议。考虑到由于对相关机制和途径的了解有限，纳米材料向环境中的释放尚未得到探索，本研究的结果尤其有助于纳米材料LCA领域的未来研究。
