ИСТИНА

Nanomaterials became a part of our everyday’s life and concerns about their impact on the environment and human being. The question now arises: how we can produce nanomaterials less harmful to the nature (or environment-friendly) and how we can decrease the impact of nanomaterials on the living organisms without sacrificing the efficiency and benefits of nanomaterials? Obviously, there is no clear answer or a single recipe for any kind of nanomaterials. Nevertheless, both direct and indirect methods aimed at making environment-friendly nanomaterials can be discussed This lecture gives a few examples of the “green” approaches to the design of nanomaterials (safe by design NMs). Among the direct methods focusing on less harmful nanomaterials, the following approaches can be mentioned, inter alia:  Use of less harmful stabilizing or capping agents,  Application of biocompatible (or biodegradable) coatings,  Design of a multi-phase composite nanoparticles,  Prevention of leaching of ions (heavy metals)  Heterogenization of nanoparticles (supported nanomatrials), The indirect methods include the procedures that  Reduce the time required for the preparation of nanomaterials,  Slash the energy consumption in the course of the preparation and utilization of nanomaterials,  Make easier the recovery of valuable components from spent nanomaterials,  Use less solvents and other auxiliary materials for the preparation of nanoparticles, solvent-free processes,  Use of mild reducing agents in the case of metal nanoparticles,  Produce less wastes in the production, Microwave activation and sonochemistry are robust and energy-saving methods usable in the preparation of many types of nanomaterials. A few examples of the use of ionic liquids are presented as well as the use of chitosans and aminoacids as benign stabilizing agents. “Green” approaches to the recovery of spent nanomaterials should be also carefully designed. Finally, the fate and transport of nanomaterials in the environment should be monitored and controlled in order to mitigate the negative impact of nanoparticles by applying user-friendly methods that should be sensitive to the concentration and morphology of the materials.