Typically, the high energy required to manufacture nanomaterials is weighed against the benefits transferred to a product. Adequately establishing the environmental characteristics of a product that contains nanomaterials requires a complete methodology. The objectives of this study are to draw attentions on life cycle information and to demonstrate the methodology for the scientific assessment of the environmental benefits of using a nanomaterial in a product to extend the product life and to provide a real example for the calculations of the approach. About 1317 products with nanomaterials in the market were analyzed to identify the outcomes of lifetime extension by the nanomaterial additions. Five life cycle elements were quantified to establish the cradle-to-gate (CTG) life cycle footprint of a product comprised of a nanomaterial. These are the following: the life cycle of the conventional product with the usual construction and without added nanomaterial, the life cycle of the nanomaterial manufactured from CTG per kilogram of nanomaterial, the amount of nanomaterial incorporated into the product, the quantitative improvement in the product performance due to the presence of the nanomaterial (such as increased lifespan), and the incremental energy and auxiliary materials (often negligible) involved in the incorporation of the nanomaterial into the conventional product The primary challenge here is to have all five of the informational pieces in order to ensure that the environmental footprint of using a nanomaterial is complete. The results can be seen for the range of products with life extension via nanomaterials, ranging from 130 to 3100%. In these cases, the higher energy to manufacture the nanomaterial is more than offset by the avoidance of manufacturing non-nanoproducts multiple times over the life extension period. It was found that several nanoscale inclusions in the products greatly increased many properties of the final product along with the lifetime. Increasing the lifetime of products by adding nanoscale inclusions will thus reduce environmental and health concerns, as well as the use of virgin materials, energy consumption, landfill allocations in the long term, and product marketability.

中文翻译：

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通过纳米材料夹杂物延长产品寿命——生命周期能源影响

通常，制造纳米材料所需的高能量与转移到产品的好处相权衡。充分确定含有纳米材料的产品的环境特性需要完整的方法论。本研究的目的是引起人们对生命周期信息的关注，并展示对在产品中使用纳米材料以延长产品寿命的环境效益进行科学评估的方法，并为该方法的计算提供一个真实的例子. 对市场上大约 1317 种含有纳米材料的产品进行了分析，以确定添加纳米材料延长使用寿命的结果。对五个生命周期元素进行量化，以建立由纳米材料组成的产品的从摇篮到门 (CTG) 生命周期足迹。它们是：具有常规结构且未添加纳米材料的常规产品的生命周期、每千克纳米材料由 CTG 制造的纳米材料的生命周期、产品中纳米材料的掺入量、产品的数量改进由于纳米材料的存在而产生的性能（例如增加的寿命），以及将纳米材料纳入常规产品所涉及的增量能量和辅助材料（通常可以忽略不计） 这里的主要挑战是拥有所有五个信息片段以确保使用纳米材料的环境足迹是完整的。可以看到通过纳米材料延长寿命的产品范围的结果，范围从 130% 到 3100%。在这些情况下，制造纳米材料的更高能量被避免在寿命延长期内多次制造非纳米产品所抵消。发现产品中的几种纳米级夹杂物大大增加了最终产品的许多性能以及寿命。通过添加纳米级内含物来延长产品的使用寿命，从而减少环境和健康问题，以及原始材料的使用、能源消耗、长期的垃圾填埋分配和产品的适销性。