Using New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) to Assess Eye Irritation or Corrosion Hazards: The US EPA will prioritize non-animal test data over information from animal studies when identifying eye irritation or corrosion hazards for new chemicals reviewed under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Their new framework will, they claim, simplify and streamline the decision-making process for new chemicals and reduce costs. Read more.

Refining OECD Test Guidelines and Guidance Documents for Nano and Advanced Materials: The Malta Initiative, an industry-government collaboration including EU member states, the European Commission, industry and other institutions, rolled out a survey seeing input from subject-area experts. Read more.

Keeping PFAS from Entering the Environment: The EPA finalized a significant new use rule (SNUR) that strengthens the regulation of per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) by preventing anyone from resuming the manufacture or processing of inactive PFAS for new uses without EPA review. Read more.

Micro-Nano Plastics Surveillance: A team at Columbia University has developed a narrowband imaging scheme and spectral matching algorithm for stimulated Raman scattering analysis that targets seven common plastics and enables rapid chemical identification and statistical analysis of particles with sizes down to 100 nm. This addresses a need for more effective analytical techniques to monitor micro-nano plastics in the environment, our food, and water. Read more.

Converting Biomass Feedstocks to Fuel-like Hydrocarbons: Researchers at the University of Kentucky have received a $1 million grant from the US Department of Energy (DOE) to develop decarboxylation/decarbonylation (deCOx) catalyst to produce renewable fuels from waste biomass. Read more. 

Cellulose Fibre Innovation Award of the Year: six promising new products using sustainable cellulose fibers have been nominated. Read more.  

A New Cellulose Nanocrystal Anti-icing and De-icing Film: A new material developed by researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and Cornell University, US, uses a co-assembled pattern of gold nanorods on cellulose nanocrystal templates. Anti-icing and de-icing functions can be carried out by simply irradiating the film in the visible wavelength range. Read more.

Analyzing SWCNT Release from Commercial Flooring: A new paper from our DIAGONAL project partners looks at the potential release of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) from commercial antistatic flooring materials and identifies structural alterations at the molecular level that may occur in fragments of the flooring when they are released during normal use (for example, during flooring installation or as a result of wear). Read it here.

Using cellulose and chitin nanocrystals (CNCs and ChNCs) to make structurally colored films: authors from the University of Cambridge, UK published a comprehensive open access review. Read it here.

Using forests for carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation: The US Forest Products Lab assess current forest management practices for timber production and their associated life-cycle environmental impacts. Read it here.

A chatbot with expertise in nanomaterials: a researcher at the US Department of Energy’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) has trained a chatbot using the scientific literature on nanomaterials. Restricting its knowledge to this curated set of documents should enable the AI model to ground its reasoning using trusted facts. Read more.