Nanotechnology for sustainable development: retrospective and outlook
Abstract
The world is facing great challenges in meeting rising demands for basic commodities (e.g., food, water and energy), finished goods (e.g., cell phones, cars and airplanes) and services (e.g., shelter, healthcare and employment) while reducing and minimizing the impact of human activities on Earth's global environment and climate. Nanotechnology has emerged as a versatile platform that could provide efficient, cost-effective and environmentally acceptable solutions to the global sustainability challenges facing society. This special issue of the Journal of Nanoparticle Research is devoted to the utilization of nanotechnology to improve or achieve sustainable development. We highlight recent advances and discuss opportunities of utilizing nanotechnology to address global challenges in (1) water purification, (2) clean energy technologies, (3) greenhouse gases management, (4) materials supply and utilization, and (5) green manufacturing and chemistry. In addition to the technical challenges listed above, we also discuss societal perspectives and provide an outlook of the role of nanotechnology in the convergence of knowledge, technology and society for achieving sustainable development.
Additional Information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. Received: 17 July 2013; Accepted: 3 October 2013; Published online: 1 November 2013. The edition of this JNR special issue on ''Nanotechnology for Sustainable Development'' was a timely effort in an area where exciting breakthroughs are occurring and paradigm shifting technologies are being developed. As Guest Editors, we really enjoyed working on this JNR special issue. We thank the authors and reviewers for making the edition of this issue possible through their responsiveness and high quality work. We thank Dr. Mihail Roco (NSF Senior Advisor for Nanotechnology and Editor-in-Chief of JNR) and the JNR staff for their constant support throughout the edition of this special issue. We greatly appreciate Dr. Roco's leadership in bringing sustainable development to the forefront of the nanotechnology research agenda worldwide. We thank the National Nanotechnology Policy Center (NNPC) of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) of the Republic of Korea and the Resnick Sustainability Institute of the California Institute of Technology for their financial support to the printing of a hardbound book of this JNR special issue. Mamadou Diallo thanks the KAIST EEWS Initiative (Grant # NT080607C0209721), the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) [MEST grant No. 2012M1A2A2026588] and the US National Science Foundation (NSF) (CBET Grants 0948485 and 0506951) for funding his research on sustainable chemistry, engineering and materials (SusCHEM). Neil Fromer thanks the Resnick Sustainability Institute, as well as the LMI-EFRC, Rod Eggert, and Jack Lifton and the other attendees of the Resnick Institute critical materials workshop for helpful discussions. Myung Jhon's research was partially supported by the Korea Science & Engineering Foundation through the WCU Project.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 42793
- DOI
- 10.1007/s11051-013-2044-0
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20131203-101122623
- Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI)
- National Nanotechnology Policy Center (NNPC)
- Caltech Resnick Sustainability Institute
- NT080607C0209721
- KAIST EEWS Initiative
- 2012M1A2A2026588
- National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST)
- 0948485
- NSF CBET
- 0506951
- NSF CBET
- Korea Science & Engineering Foundation WCU Project
- Created
-
2013-12-10Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-10Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Resnick Sustainability Institute