Dataset Information

On the materials basis of modern society.

ABSTRACT: It is indisputable that modern life is enabled by the use of materials in its technologies. Those technologies do many things very well, largely because each material is used for purposes to which it is exquisitely fitted. The result over time has been a steady increase in product performance. We show that this materials complexity has markedly increased in the past half-century and that elemental life cycle analyses characterize rates of recycling and loss. A further concern is that of possible scarcity of some of the elements as their use increases. Should materials availability constraints occur, the use of substitute materials comes to mind. We studied substitution potential by generating a comprehensive summary of potential substitutes for 62 different metals in all their major uses and of the performance of the substitutes in those applications. As we show herein, for a dozen different metals, the potential substitutes for their major uses are either inadequate or appear not to exist at all. Further, for not 1 of the 62 metals are exemplary substitutes available for all major uses. This situation largely decouples materials substitution from price, thereby forcing material design changes to be primarily transformative rather than incremental. As wealth and population increase worldwide in the next few decades, scientists will be increasingly challenged to maintain and improve product utility by designing new and better materials, but doing so under potential constraints in resource availability.

SUBMITTER: Graedel TE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4443350 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:Currently, a serious threat for living organisms and human life in particular, is water contamination with persistent organic and inorganic pollutants. To date, several techniques have been adopted to remove/treat organics and toxic contaminants. Adsorption is one of the most effective and economical methods for this purpose. Generally, porous materials are considered as appropriate adsorbents for water purification. Conventional adsorbents such as activated carbons have a limited possibility of surface modification (texture and functionality), and their adsorption capacity is difficult to control. Therefore, despite the significant progress achieved in the development of the systems for water remediation, there is still a need for novel adsorptive materials with tunable functional characteristics. This review addresses the new trends in the development of new adsorbent materials. Herein, modern carbon-based materials, such as graphene, oxidized carbon, carbon nanotubes, biomass-derived carbonaceous matrices-biochars as well as their composites with metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and MOF-derived highly-ordered carbons are considered as advanced adsorbents for removal of hazardous organics from drinking water, process water, and leachate. The review is focused on the preparation and modification of these next-generation carbon-based adsorbents and analysis of their adsorption performance including possible adsorption mechanisms. Simultaneously, some weak points of modern carbon-based adsorbents are analyzed as well as the routes to conquer them. For instance, for removal of large quantities of pollutants, the combination of adsorption and other methods, like sedimentation may be recommended. A number of efficient strategies for further enhancing the adsorption performance of the carbon-based adsorbents, in particular, integrating approaches and further rational functionalization, including composing these adsorbents (of two or even three types) can be recommended. The cost reduction and efficient regeneration must also be in the focus of future research endeavors. The targeted optimization of the discussed carbon-based adsorbents associated with detailed studies of the adsorption process, especially, for multicomponent adsorbate solution, will pave a bright avenue for efficient water remediation.

Dataset Information

On the materials basis of modern society.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets