Environmental and Health Impacts of Graphene and Other Two-Dimensional Materials: A Graphene Flagship Perspective

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Two-dimensional (2D) materials have attracted tremendous interest ever since the isolation of atomically thin sheets of graphene in 2004 due to the specific and versatile properties of these materials. However, the increasing production and use of 2D materials necessitate a thorough evaluation of the potential impact on human health and the environment. Furthermore, harmonized test protocols are needed with which to assess the safety of 2D materials. The Graphene Flagship project (2013-2023), funded by the European Commission, addressed the identification of the possible hazard of graphene-based materials as well as emerging 2D materials including transition metal dichalcogenides, hexagonal boron nitride, and others. Additionally, so-called green chemistry approaches were explored to achieve the goal of a safe and sustainable production and use of this fascinating family of nanomaterials. The present review provides a compact survey of the findings and the lessons learned in the Graphene Flagship.

The authors are supported by the European Commission through the Graphene Flagship Project (grant agreement no. 881603) (work package on Health & Environment, and SafeGraph SH11 spearhead project), and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) (A.B., E.F.), the Interdisciplinary Thematic Institute SysChem, through the IdEx Unistra (ANR-10-IDEX-0002) within the French Investments for the Future Program (A.B.), by the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (A.S., F.T., M.K.), and from the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant no. 310030_169207) (T.B., P.W.). M.C. had a contract in the framework of the project 2018-T2/AMB-11392 granted and funded by the Community of Madrid. This study forms part of the Advanced Materials program and was supported by MCIN (project PID2020-113080RB-I00) with funding from European Union NextGenerationEU (PRTR-C17.I1) and by the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha (SBPLY/21/180501/000176) (E.V). Parts of some figures were created with BioRender.com.

Peer reviewed