CNTs are again a popular subject for predicting doom if they continue to be applied in products.\u00a0 The article that started the line of thought in last week\u2019s blog, has been circulating again in the form of \u201clatest\u201d news announcements.\u00a0 The contention is that CNTs are similar in shape to asbestos and therefore will have the same damaging effect as asbestos.\u00a0 The experiments that have been run incorporate specially constructed CNTs that are many times longer than typical CNTs and are overdosed.\u00a0 It is not surprising that the material, which has been made longer than the size that the human body can accommodate resulted in issues.<\/p>\n
If we are able to generalize outcomes for a material from unnatural sizes or states, then why not consider the ability of a meter long CNT.\u00a0 The first response is that is not way we can make them.\u00a0 But 20 micrometer long CNTs are not the normal way CNTs are manufactured.\u00a0 Is it surprising that we are able to create a material in such a configuration that it mimics another material, in this case asbestos, and causes reactions that are similar to the material that it mimics?<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, there are also some concerns raised about graphene, which is basically an unrolled CNT.\u00a0 The concern that was raised is that graphene, as a two-dimensional material, would be able to cut through cells with very little effort.\u00a0 Consequently, it was suggested that graphene be considered a dangerous material.\u00a0 Really?\u00a0 Where is the data?<\/p>\n
There are many issues that are being \u201cfloated\u201d in the public view.\u00a0 The CNT \u201cwork\u201d provides for some lively discussions, but there is a very fundamental point that is being missed.\u00a0 The process of manufacturing CNT almost always involves a catalyst.\u00a0 Another portion of the process is the etching away of the catalyst.\u00a0 The end result of the manufacturing process is a quantity of CNTs.\u00a0 However, these are a mixture of single wall and multi-wall CNTs.\u00a0 The single wall CNTs can be conducting or semiconducting.\u00a0 So there is probably a wide range of different types of CNTs that are being employed for the experiments, but there is not any detail of the specific type of CNT.\u00a0 Do we know how many CNTs strands are required to create the observed reaction?<\/p>\n
Why is this important?\u00a0 Medical studies can provide information, but often times it is impossible to determine if the observed effect is from the central point of the distribution or a small portion of the tail of the distribution.\u00a0 Very often, we do not have the capabilities of measuring\/determining the exact makeup of the distribution.<\/p>\n
If there is a problem detected due to a CNT, is it due to the CNT, or the catalyst, or the chemical residue from the catalyst removal process? \u00a0\u00a0Is it due to single wall or multi-wall CNTs?\u00a0 If both, what is the distribution?\u00a0 If single wall CNTs, is it the conductive or the semi conductive variety?\u00a0 If we do not know, how can we state that the entire class of CNTs can be clumped together?\u00a0 One problem is that we do not have equipment that can sufficiently characterize these distributions.\u00a0 These facts question the credibility of the pronouncements of danger from various nanomaterials.\u00a0 We need all the facts before making definitive statements.\u00a0 The examination of the facts with all the details is required before a proper answer can be determined.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CNTs are again a popular subject for predicting doom if they continue to be applied in products.\u00a0 The article that started the line of thought in last week\u2019s [..]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nano","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nano-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nano-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nano-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nano-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nano-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=81"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.nano-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82,"href":"http:\/\/www.nano-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions\/82"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nano-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nano-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nano-blog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}