Page 20 - Environmental Nanotechnology Applications and Impacts of Nanomaterials

6 Nanotechnology as a Tool for Sustainability

the same analytical doors of perception on their way to studying phe-
nomena at the scale of atoms and molecules inevitably produces inter-
actions between individuals who are motivated by widely different
problems and applications. To participate in this dialogue, environ-
mental engineers must be conversant in the language of these enabling
analytical technologies.

Origin and Organization of This Book
The origin of this book was a dialogue between the Wiesner and Bottero
groups that began when Wiesner was on sabbatical from Rice University
in 1998 at the Centre Européen de Recherche et d’Enseignement des
Géosciences de l’Environnement (CEREGE) in Aix-en-Provence. There
was great interest in nanotechnology on the Rice University campus,
where the first nanotechnology institute in the world—today the
Smalley Institute—was established in 1993. The physical-chemical
processes group at the CEREGE had for many years taken an atomic-
scale approach to addressing water treatment and solid waste issues,
employing many of the tools that enable nanochemistry research. We
perceived a need for introducing a materials science dimension to envi-
ronmental engineering curricula, and this need resonated with a grow-
ing interest in nanotechnology. Although efforts were being made at
that time to import newly developed nanomaterials to environmental
applications, apart from futuristic scenarios of “gray-goo”–producing
nanobots [13], the environmental impacts of nanomaterials produced in
the near term had not yet been addressed.
With financial support from the Office of Science and Technology of
the French Consulate, in December 2001 we organized the first-ever
public forum addressing the environmental implications of nanotech-
nologies. This event, sponsored by the Environmental and Energy
Systems Institute at Rice, brought together nanochemistry and envi-
ronmental researchers from various laboratories in France and from
Rice to speculate on health and environmental impacts of nanomate-
rials. The repercussions from this event have been widespread and
included the launch of a newly minted NSF center (CBEN) and the
creation of an international consortium of researchers addressing the
impacts of nanomaterials (I-CENTR). Four years of collaboration later,
and with a substantially enlarged community of researchers around the
world engaged in research in this area, we reconvened in December
2005 to consider the progress made in applying nanomaterials to envi-
ronmental technologies and in understanding the possible impacts of
these materials on health and the environment. The outline of this
book follows the agenda of this second symposium. This agenda can be
presented in the context of the information needed for risk assessment