Definition:

"Green nanotechnology is defined as the technology that is used to develop clean technologies in order to minimize human health and potential environmental risks".

It is associated with the use of nanotechnology products and manufacturing process. Green nanotechnology encourages substitution of existing products in order to develop new nano-products. Production of new nano-products makes the environment friendlier.

Introduction:

Green nanotechnology is an application of nanotechnology (is the branch of engineering that deals with things smaller than 100 nanometers (especially with the manipulation of individual molecules)). It refers to heighten the environmental sustainability that is producing negative exteriorities. For the sustainability enhancement green nanotechnology also refers to the use of nanotechnology products. Green nanotechnology is basically about making green nano-products or doing things right in the first place. It also uses nano-products in maintenance of sustainability.

Goals:

Green nanotechnology has two main goals;

• Producing nanomaterials (or products without harming the human health or environment).

• Producing nano-products (that provide solutions to environmental problems).

Green nanotechnology practices prevailing principles of Green Engineering (is the process and design of products that conserve natural resources, and impact the natural environment as little as possible. The term is often applied to housing, but it can be used for automobiles, lights or any other sort of system or device that requires engineering, and incorporates sound environmental principles) and Green Chemistry or sustainable chemistry (is a philosophy of chemical research and engineering that encourages the design of products and processes that minimize the use and generation of hazardous substances) in order to make nano-products and nanomaterials. For the making of these materials and products four things are considered;

1. Without the use of toxic ingredients.
2. At very low temperature using less energy.
3. Renewable inputs wherever possible and
4. Using life-cycle thinking in all design and engineering stages.

Furthermore, in the making of nano-products and nanomaterials with less influence to the environment, here Green Nanotechnology also means that manufacturing of new non-nano materials and products more environments friendlier by using nanotechnology. If we take an example of nanoscale membranes that can help separate anticipated chemical reaction products from unused materials. And to speed up these chemical reactions and making them more efficient and less wasteful "nanoscale catalysts (is the change in rate of a chemical reaction due to the participation of a substance called a catalyst)" are used.

Moreover, for the formation of process control systems (is a statistics and engineering discipline that deals with architectures, mechanisms and algorithms for maintaining the output of a specific process within a desired range) sensors or detectors (is any device that receives a signal or stimulus (as heat or pressure or light or motion etc.) and responds to it in a distinctive manner) are used at nanoscale level that work with nano-enabled information systems. There is also an alternative made possible by nanotechnology i.e. energy systems to "Green" fabricating progressions.

Green nanotechnology second goal is to develop nano-products that help the environment either directly or indirectly.

Nano-products or nanomaterials directly can;

• Desalinate water (refers to any of several processes that remove some amount of salt and other minerals from water).

• Hazardous waste sites (refers to any of several processes that remove some amount of salt and other minerals from water).

• Treat pollutants.

• Sense environmental pollutants and

• Monitor environmental pollutants.

Nano-products or nanomaterials indirectly can;

• Lightweight nanocomposites (is as a multiphase solid material where one of the phases has one, two or three dimensions of less than 100 nanometers (nm), or structures having nano-scale repeat distances between the different phases that make up the material) for automobiles.

• Save fuel.

• Reduce materials used for production.

• Reduce pollution from energy generation.

• Help conserve fossil fuels.

• Reduce or eliminate many cleaning chemicals.

• Enhance battery life (that could lead to less material use and less waste).

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