SABYNA

Nanomaterials hold the promise of changing the everyday world in fundamental ways. However, as with any innovation, scientists need to shed light on the potential health and environmental risks along the life cycle of a product. The EU-funded SAbyNA project plans to develop a user-friendly platform with optimal workflows to support the development of safe-by-design nanomaterials and nano-enabled products. The workflows will integrate safe-by-design strategies and risk mitigation measures along with decision trees that facilitate the identification of the most suitable approaches for workers, consumers and the environment. Continuous dialogue with different stakeholders and end users will maximize the added value of the project’s safe-by-design guidance platform, which will also be demonstrated in real-life industrial case studies.

In collaboration with ALLIOS, our group leads the paint case study regarding functional outdoor coating with enhanced radiation efficiency. Nanoscale metal oxide-based mixed materials have been the subject of interest for their fascinating properties including high thermal and mechanical resistance, hydrophobic nature, high fluorescence efficiency, high chemical stability, high quantum yields and low sintering temperature.

Motivation to this work is to synthesize a high-quality metal oxide-based nanomaterial with enhanced solar reflectance. These nanomaterials are incorporated in outdoor paint to minimize buildings energy in a context of renovation. These nano-based outdoor paints are developed with a safer and sustainable by design approach i.e. adjusting the chemistry and the size of the reflective particles for higher reflectivity and less toxic chemical composition compared to already exist on the market.