A methodology for evaluation and selection of nanoparticle manufacturing processes based on sustainability metrics.

A set of sustainability metrics, covering the economic, environmental and sociological dimensions of sustainability for evaluation of nanomanufacturing processes is developed. The metrics are divided into two categories namely industrial engineering metrics (process and safety metrics) and green chemistry metrics (environmental impact). The waste reduction algorithm (WAR) is used to determine the environmental impact of the processes and NAIADE (Novel Approach to Imprecise Assessment and Decision Environments) software is used for evaluation and decision analysis. The methodology is applied to three processes used for silica nanoparticle synthesis based on sol-gel and flame methods.