Abstract
Nanoparticles are materials with special properties that can be applied in different fields, such as medicine, engineering, food industry and cosmetics. The contributions regarding the synthesis of different types of nanoparticles have allowed researchers to determine a special group of nanoparticles with key characteristics for several applications. Magnetite nanoparticles (Fe3O4) have attracted a significant amount of attention due to their ability to improve the properties of polymeric materials. For this reason, the development of novel/emerging large scale processes for the synthesis of nanomaterials is a great and important challenge. In this work, an environmental assessment of the large scale production of magnetite via coprecipitation was carried out with the aim to evaluate its potential impact on the environment at a processing capacity of 806.87 t/year of magnetite nanoparticles. The assessment was performed using a computer-aided tool based on the Waste Reduction Algorithm (WAR). This method allows us to quantify the impacts generated and classify them into eight different categories. The process does not generate any negative impacts that could harm the environment. This assessment allowed us to identify the applicability of the large scale production of magnetite nanoparticles from an environmental viewpoint.
Highlights
The magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles are materials with important properties and can be used for different applications
For the case in which the product and energy are included and, the Potential Environmental Impact (PEI) output values are equal. These results indicate that the inclusion of the product stream or energy generate the same impacts and contributes to an increase in the total PEI output
From the the results be established that the process is not harmful to the environment as the process transforms the feed streams with high PEI into final products with lower PEI
Summary
The magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles are materials with important properties and can be used for different applications. The magnetite (Fe3 O4 ) are a type of nanoparticles that belong to a special group and they have been drawing expressive technological interests due to their outstanding properties and potential applications in fields as medicine, biotechnology, engineering, among others [1]. Nanosized magnetite particles have received major interest in the manufacturing of magnetic recording devices, protective and sensitive coatings, catalysts, pigments and ferrofluids [2]. The production of this type of nanoparticles can be carried out using different methods, such as thermal decomposition [3,4], microemulsion and coprecipitation [5].
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