Towards safety and sustainability in scalable production of semiconducting nano- and non-nanomaterials: Zinc oxide - a case study

Nano (<100 nm) and non-nano (100-200 nm) semiconducting materials have cutting-edge applications in energy generation, transmission and storage, sensing, data storage, photonics, environmental protection, cosmetics, biology, and medicine due to their extraordinary optical, and electromagnetic properties. Worldwide,the demand for these materials has increased, with special emphasis to semiconductors. The usefulness of zinc oxide (ZnO) has already been demonstrated in many areas from microelectronics to cosmetics, from medicine to pharmacy.

Recently, a model has been proposed, suggesting improvements in the two main dimensions alongthe value chain from the process of manufacturing the material to the proposed improvement in its final application - renewable energy: The VERDEQUANT manufacturing process of ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) has been further developed towards one which is sustainable, free from fossils, utilizing by-products from cheese manufacturing in a cascaded process configuration [WO2021046586A1] or a 100% vegan alternative. The usefulness has been demonstrated recently in a publication (DOI: 10.1007/s10854-021-07524-8) ,mimicking optimum conditions for best efficiency of organic solar cells (OSCs) by introducing VERDEQUANTTM ZnO NPs as nanodiffusors.

This presentation was given 21 June 2022 during Track 1: Hazard, Exposure and SSbD of NanoWeek 2022 in Limassol, Cyprus.