Nanomaterials Safety
The HEHS Center offers technological and expert support to industries to ensure that their nanotechnology based-products and processes are safe for human health and the environment. It offers its capacities and experience to a wide range of sectors.
Chemicals
Materials
Textile
Detergents
Cosmetics
Construction
Medicine
Food
Transport
Packaging
Occupational Nanosafety
The HEHS Center assesses workers exposure to aerosols and engineered nanomaterials.
On-Site Characterization
- Particle number concentration
- Mass concentration
- Lung deposited surface area
In-Lab Characterization
- Morphology (TEM/SEM)
- Chemical analysis (ICP-MS, EDX)
Mitigation Strategies
- Assessment of in-place control measures
- Advice to improve mitigation effectiveness
- Risk assessment with control banding tools
Safe-by-Design
- Nanomaterials
- Processes
Potentially hazardous particles are present during the following manufacturing processes:
- Gridding
- Milling
- Abrasion
- Machining
- Shredding
- Internal combustion engines (diesel, gasoline, gas)
- Incineration
- Power plants (coal)
Heating processes
- Welding (metal, plastic)
- Kilns firing
- Metal casting
- Sintering
- Rubber manufacturing
- Asphalt works
- Thermal spraying (APS, HVOF, PPS)
- Laser processes (ablations, cladding, cutting)
- Plasma cutting
Physico-Chemical Characterization
Characterization of (nano)materials following standard protocols including identification and quantification in complex matrices
- Core Composition (ICP-MS, ATR-IR, TEM-EDX)
- Concentration / Purity (ICP-MS, EDX)
- Primary size and aggregate size distribution (DLS, TEM, SEM, NTA)
- Volume specific surface area (BET)
- Shape (TEM, SEM)
- Dissolution (ICP-MS, TEM)
- Surface charge (Zeta Potential)
- Coating (FTIR, TGA, TEM-EDX)
- Surface properties (FTIR, XPS, TGA)
- Crystallinity (XRD, TEM)
- Stability (DLS, Zeta Potential, UV-visible spectroscopy, NTA)
High-Level Research Projects
The HEHS Center participates in the most important research projects on nanomaterial safety at European level developing future regulations, frameworks, standards and classifications. It is also highly involved in the EU Nanosafety Cluster to maximise the synergies between European-level projects, and to address the safety of materials and technologies enabled by the use of nanoparticles.
Open Projects
The European Nanotechnology Community Informatics Platform: Bridging data and disciplinary gaps for industry and regulators
Performance testing, calibration and implementation of a next generation system-of-systems Risk Governance Framework for nanomaterials
Grouping, Read-Across, Characterisation and Classification Framework for Regulatory Risk Assessment of Manufactured Nanomaterials and Safer Design of nano-enabled Products
Nanomaterial Fate and Speciation in the Environment
Implementation of Risk Governance: meeting the needs of nanotechnology