Workers’ Exposure Assessment during the Production of Graphene Nanoplatelets in R&D Laboratory

Nanomaterials

Francesca Tombolini¹  Riccardo Ferrante¹  Fabio Boccuni¹  Sergio Iavicoli¹  Irene Bellagamba²  MariaSabrina Sarto²  Fabrizio Marra² 

[1] Italian Workers’ Compensation Authority—Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Epidemiology and Hygiene, Via Fontana Candida 1, I-00078 Rome, Italy;Research Center for Nanotechnology Applied to Engineering (CNIS), Sapienza University of Rome, I-00185 Rome, Italy;

关键词: nanotechnologies;    graphene nanoplatelets;    2D nanostructures;    occupational safety and health;    exposure assessment;    risk mitigation;   

DOI  :  10.3390/nano10081520

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Widespread production and use of engineered nanomaterials in industrial and research settings raise concerns about their health impact in the workplace. In the last years, graphene-based nanomaterials have gained particular interest in many application fields. Among them, graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) showed superior electrical, optical and thermal properties, low-cost and availability. Few and conflicting results have been reported about toxicity and potential effects on workers’ health, during the production and handling of these nanostructures. Due to this lack of knowledge, systematic approaches are needed to assess risks and quantify workers’ exposure to GNPs. This work applies a multi-metric approach to assess workers’ exposure during the production of GNPs, based on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) methodology by integrating real-time measurements and personal sampling. In particular, we analyzed the particle number concentration, the average diameter and the lung deposited surface area of airborne nanoparticles during the production process conducted by thermal exfoliation in two different ways, compared to the background. These results have been integrated by electron microscopic and spectroscopic analysis on the filters sampled by personal impactors. The study identifies the process phases potentially at risk for workers and reports quantitative information about the parameters that may influence the exposure in order to propose recommendations for a safer design of GNPs production process.

【 授权许可】

Unknown