Search news
Most searched tags
Is your nanosilver T-shirt bad for the environment?
Published: Wednesday 18 May 2011
Nano-silver applications in antimicrobial or 'non-smelly' fabric applications focused most of the attention of the media and bloggers for years. It comes as no surprise that a detailed evaluation of the environmental impact has finally been reported on a particular case of T-shirt enhanced with nano-silver. In an article published by American Chemical Society Journal for Environment Science and Technology (Environ. Sci. Technol., 2011, 45 (10), pp 4570-4578) entitled "Prospective Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Nanosilver T-Shirts" authors evaluate carbon food print of the entire life cycle of T-shirts made with various antibacterial agents including nano-silver.
The group from the Institute of Environmental Engineering ETH (Zurich) performed a cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) for T-shits with and without nanosilver. The comparison was made with other types of antibacterial treatments of fabric:
- Conventional T-shirt with no treatment
- T-shirts treated with triclosan
- flame spray pyrolysis (FSP) with melt-spun incorporation of silver nanoparticles
- plasma polymerization with silver co-sputtering (PlaSpu)
The results of the analysis could be found in the publicly available figure from the article. The carbon foot print of the T-shirt production with nanosilvr is 2.7 kg of CO2-equiv (FSP) and 7.67 - 166 kg of CO2-equiv (PlaSpu, varying maturity stages). It should be noted that the production of conventional T-shirt is only 2.55 kg of CO2-equiv. Thus depending on the process and its optimisation and maturity level, the environmental impact varies significantly.
The authors conclude that the 'Distribution/sale and the disposal phase are of minor importance in the life cycle of the T-shirt and could be further lowered by reducing transport distances, avoiding air transport, and increasing energy efficiency in retail outlets.'
The environmental impact of nanomaterials has come under a strict scrutiny in recent weeks with other publications attempting to evaluate the cradle-to-grave or life-cycle assessment of various nanomaterials. This study is in line with other reports indicating that the use of nanomaterials in products does not have a negligibly small environmental impact, yet for a well-optimised process of nanomaterial production and integration should be comparable (not overwhelmingly high in comparison) with the energy required to make the bulk of the product.
For more information please follow the link to the Environment Science and Technology publication (subscribers only).
News item was
produced by NIA in association with BREC Solutions.
Tags: nano-Silver, life-cycle assessment, environmental impact, environmental fate