Innovative and Biocompatible Approaches for Nanomaterial Production and Application: Eco-Friendly Nanoscience

Introduction

Today’s world emphasizes a “green economy” and, as such, the focus must shift from just meeting man’s demand for sustenance, shelter, healthcare, transportation, and energy, to ensuring that these commodities and services meet the requirements for sustainable development. Humankind is now on the lookout for green food, green jobs, and green and sustainable technology at the individual, organizational, national, and global levels. As a result, any technology that is to thrive now or shortly must also be environmentally friendly. Product transitions from manufacturing processes to applications and then disposal should have little or no adverse effect on the ecosystem.

Over the years, nanotechnology has shown immense growth and is gradually finding relevance in almost every field of science today (Enescu et al., 2019). By exploring the small size and large surface area of nanoparticles, nanotechnology has proffered green and sustainable solutions to global challenges. Presently, green nanomaterials are synthesized from biomaterials such as plants, algae, fungus, and bacteria, eggshells, honey, and cobwebs using environmentally friendly methods, and they have found sustainable applications in environmental remediation, agriculture, renewable energy, and biomedical research, among others (Rajasekhar & Kanchi, 2018).

Nanotechnology is a multidisciplinary science that encompasses many other disciplines; it is the study and application of elements with nano-sizes ranging from 1 to 100nm. It involves atoms and molecules in the submicron dimension and the resultant utilization in larger systems (Nasrollahzadeh et al., 2019). The word ‘nano’ is from a Greek term signifying a size of 10-9 which is 1000 times smaller when compared to a micron. The term ‘nanoscale’ is used when a material has a dimension less than 100nm (Nasrollahzadeh et al., 2019). Thus, nanoparticles can be defined as a compendium of atoms that are bonded together and have a radius of between 1 and 100nm. Sizes beyond the 1-10 nm range, like those in the 1000nm range, are sometimes referred to as nanomaterials (Leon et al., 2020).

Nanoparticles possess an enlarged surface area available for reactions which results in a distinct quantum effect and chemical reactivity (Nasrollahzadeh et al., 2019). Materials at different sizes usually possess different biological, physical, and chemical properties at the nanoscale, and this difference in characteristics is what nanoscience leverages to manufacture unique products that solve life's problems without posing grievous threats to environmental sustainability. The size of nanomaterials is what confers nanoparticles with unique properties that distinguish them from the parent material (Nasrollahzadeh et al., 2019; Chaturvedi & Dave, 2020; Leon et al., 2020).

However, nanomaterials are as old as man and could exist naturally without deliberate fabrication. A good example of naturally occurring nanomaterials is the magnetotactic bacteria, which uses iron oxide nanoparticles to dictate the Earth’s magnetic field lines. The use of nanoparticles by man dates back to the fourth century AD, in the form of the Lycurgus cup, which contained metallic nanoparticles that gave the cup either a green or red color depending on the reflected or transmitted light (Leon et al., 2020). Michael Faraday later confirmed this and reported that gold metal had unusual optical properties at a minute size scale. Gustav Mie also reported similar observations in 1908. In the 16th century, a Swiss chemist, Doctor Von Hohenheim, produced and treated his patients with nano-sized gold particles (Nasrollahzadeh et al., 2019; Leon et al., 2020).