Working with industrial partners in the DIAGONAL project, Vireo conducted a detailed nanomaterial life-cycle risk analysis (Nano LCRA) for a graphene-enabled functional fabric used in personal protective equipment. This work includes a comprehensive graphene toxicity meta-analysis, critical literature review, and data gap analysis. Read our open access paper in NanoImpact.

Nano LCRA is an established tool that considers long-term safety across a product's entire life cycle and can scan for unanticipated effects on human health or the environment before commercialization. Our work demonstrates the use of Nano LCRA to support safer and more sustainable by design (SSbD) approaches for commercially relevant materials (the focus of DIAGONAL work). The graphene toxicity meta-analysis can inform risk analysis on graphene-enabled materials for other application areas.

Using Nano LCRA, we identified scenarios for producing, using, and eventually disposing of graphene-enhanced textiles in firefighting jackets that could lead to occupational, public, or environmental exposure to graphene. We then evaluated the potential hazards that might result from any exposure based on a critical assessment of the many studies that have been published evaluating possible human health or ecological impacts of graphene-based materials.

Overall, risks identified from graphene-enabled textiles were low, but there are several important gaps between the published research and the data needed to assess commercially relevant materials. Once incorporated into the firefighting jacket, the primary exposure to graphene is dermal. And the exposure is not to pristine graphene but to a graphene-acrylic composite surface coated on a textile. There is limited data on exposure characteristics and hazards of particles released from graphene composites and no data on graphene-acrylic coatings. Studies evaluating accelerated abrasion of graphene-enabled textiles have found possible but low exposures to graphene particles. However, few studies have assessed particulate exposure associated with typical weathering, wear and reprocessing.

Potential environmental risks arise from incidental exposure or accidental spills/releases associated with graphene handling during raw material and product manufacturing. These can be mitigated through engineering controls and emergency spill procedures. Studies suggest that graphene has a low environmental hazard; however, there are gaps in our understanding of the potential environmental persistence, transformations and ecotoxicity.