Experimental Protocol to Investigate Particle Aerosolization of a Product Under Abrasion and Under Environmental Weathering

Abstract

The present article presents an experimental protocol to investigate particle aerosolization of a product under abrasion and under environmental weathering, which is a fundamental element to the approach of nanosafety-by-design of nanostructured products for their durable development. This approach is basically a preemptive one in which the focus is put on minimizing the emission of engineered nanomaterials' aerosols during the usage phase of the product's life cycle. This can be attained by altering its material properties during its design phase without compromising with any of its added benefits. In this article, an experimental protocol is presented to investigate the nanosafety-by-design of three commercial nanostructured products with respect to their mechanical solicitation and environmental weathering. The means chosen for applying the mechanical solicitation is an abrasion process and for the environmental weathering, it is an accelerated UV exposure in the presence of humidity and heat. The eventual emission of engineered nanomaterials is studied in terms of their number concentration, size distribution, morphology and chemical composition. The purpose of the protocol is to study the emission for test samples and experimental conditions which are corresponding to real life situations. It was found that the application of the mechanical stresses alone emits the engineered nanomaterials' aerosols in which the engineered nanomaterial is always embedded inside the product matrix, thus, a representative product element. In such a case, the emitted aerosols comprise of both nanoparticles as well as microparticles. But if the mechanical stresses are coupled with the environmental weathering, the experimental protocol reveals then the eventual deterioration of the product, after a certain weathering duration, may lead to the emission of the free engineered nanomaterial aerosols too.