Carlos Rumbo Lorenzo is Head of the Toxicology Group at ICCRAM and coordinator of the H2020 project DIAGONAL. At ANTHOS’24, he presented one of the DIAGONAL demonstrators “Metallic HARNs for printed electronics: Ag nanowires” and participated in the panel “Creating long-term impact for society considering multistakeholder needs”. We sat down after the conference to take a look at the bigger picture.

DIAGONAL is one of the 3 NMBP-16 projects funded by the EU to bring new methodologies to guarantee long-term nanosafety, focusing on multicomponent nanomaterials and High Aspect Ratio Nanoparticles. Why are MCNMs and HARNs a priority for the EC?

MCNMs and HARNs are considered part of the Key Enabling Technologies, materials that have very promising properties and can support disruptive changes, transforming our economy and generating new markets and key players. Research and innovation in this field is actively promoted by the industry; however, the risks related to these innovations are yet unknown.

DIAGONAL’s aim is to generate new knowledge on these materials to be able to support the Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design development of new chemicals meeting the MCNMs and HARNs characteristics. This knowledge is being developed through experimental studies that provide evidence and data to develop in silico tools, able to predict the behaviour of novel materials in terms of toxicology but also regarding their sustainability (from the environmental, economic and social aspects).

Being able to support decision making at the industrial level, providing clear information on the best strategies to develop Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design innovations is the final goal of this project, in line with the EC efforts.      

At BNN, we believe that employing the Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) Framework from the start of a project can lead to cost and time savings later on, when finding out that a new material is unsafe for humans or the environment. As a researcher, what is your take on SSbD?

I think the application of the SSbD Framework at early stages of a material development is a very useful tool. Anticipating possible hazards of a novel technology definitely leads to better decision making, saving time and money, and avoiding wrong choices in the process.

Although the SSbD Framework is under development, and it is currently being tested by the nanosafety community, it is a crucial tool to assess the industry and allow a reliable industrial growth. The life-cycle approach allows the user to have a global picture of the behaviour of the products and processes involved along the whole life cycle, which is aligned with the planetary boundaries approach. Also, the theoretical approach has a significant presence in this framework, which allows us to evaluate different scenarios before carrying out expensive experimental trials.

This paradigm will certainly foster a quicker and more reliable technology development. Some improvement is needed but I am convinced that with all the contributions from the scientific and industrial community, the SSbD concept will position itself as a crucial tool for the R&D and technology developers to ensure the safety and sustainability of novel materials.

DIAGONAL is developing a Decision Support Tool for MCNMs and HARNs. Explain what you think the impact of this tool might be.

The idea is to allow different stakeholders who want to create a nanoparticle for a specific use to preliminarily investigate if there is any hazard concern along the lifecycle of the novel material. The tool would need some basic information from the user to provide recommendations on how to produce these nanoparticles in a safe and sustainable way. The models that will be included in the tool and the library of data and strategies will support decision making if there is any risk associated to the nanoparticle itself or its upstream and downstream related processes.

This tool is still under development, and the idea is that it will be updated thanks to its open approach, with the collaboration of research data increasing the library of nanoparticles and their properties, broadening the accuracy and scope of the system.

Using the tool at early stages of the innovation process will save time and money to ensure that a nanomaterial can be commercialized avoiding safety issues.

With all the safety and sustainability testing needed, at the end of the day, what makes production of nanoparticles and nanomaterials worth it?

If it is possible to create nanoparticles which are safe, have no environmental concerns, and are sustainable, avoiding contamination and keeping costs as low as possible and offer unique use characteristics, what can be better than that?