Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
(a)
Product categories
300
03/2006
03/2011
250
200
150
100
50
0
(b)
Product categories in LCA studies
10
Electronics and computers
Automotive (incl. polymer composites)
Clothing
Others
No application (production only)
8
6
4
2
0
FIGURE 11.4
Evolution of LCA studies in parallel with commercialization of nanomaterials. (a and c:
Retrieved from the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholar—Project on Emerging
Nanotechnologies, 04/2012.)
to indicate that the application of LCA to nanoproducts has lagged behind
the booming expansion of the field of nanotechnologies (note the many-fold
increases in number of commercialized products per category in Figure
11.4a).
Among the major nanomaterials that were investigated (as such or as part
of a product), half of the studies related to carbon-based nanomaterials, with
