Global energy and environmental pressures are intensifying the urgency to decarbonize industrial systems. While renewable energy deployment is accelerating, many sectors remain deeply reliant on fossil-based energy and materials, with few scalable alternatives that can meet industrial performance, cost, and reliability requirements.
Nanomaterials offer a differentiated approach to this challenge. Yet the pathway from nanoscale innovation to commercial impact is complex. Moving from laboratory breakthroughs to reliable, large-scale deployment introduces technical, economic, environmental, and operational considerations that must be carefully addressed before nanomaterials can deliver meaningful emissions reductions.
This article examines what nanomaterials are, why they matter for climate solutions, and the key challenges shaping their adoption.Â
What are nanomaterials?
Nanomaterials are materials engineered at the nanoscale, typically below 100 nanometers, where size fundamentally alters performance. At this scale, materials exhibit properties not observed in their bulk form, including high surface area, enhanced reactivity, distinct electrical behavior, and tunable chemical interactions.
Nanotechnology leverages these properties to overcome the limitations of conventional materials across science and industry. The high surface-to-volume ratio of nanomaterials creates a greater number of active reaction sites, improving efficiency in catalysis, energy conversion, and pollutant capture.
In climate applications, nanomaterials enable targeted interventions. Carbon nanotubes, nanoparticles, and nano-coatings can capture carbon dioxide, enhance solar cell performance, and filter air pollutants. By engineering matter at the atomic level, nanotechnology offers precise tools to support climate mitigation and energy system transformation.
However, the same nanoscale characteristics that give nanomaterials their performance advantages also introduce technical, economic, environmental, and regulatory challenges that constrain large-scale deployment.
Challenges in nanomaterials
High production costs
Large-scale deployment of nanotechnology remains constrained by high production costs and integration complexity. Manufacturing nanomaterials requires complex synthesis routes and tight process control, driving up costs.
High-quality carbon nanotube production illustrates this challenge, with expense limiting broader adoption. Scaling production while maintaining performance and consistency remains difficult. The lack of standardized manufacturing methods further increases cost variability and performance uncertainty.
Market competition
Nanomaterial-based products must compete with long-established technologies supported by mature infrastructure and economies of scale. Even when offering superior performance, adoption is slowed by the reliability and lower cost of conventional alternatives. Integrating nanomaterials into existing industrial systems adds additional expense, slowing commercialization and limiting accessibility.
Metal–organic framework limitations
Nanomaterials such as metal–organic frameworks require further research to improve their effectiveness for carbon capture. Transitioning MOFs from laboratory research to industrial deployment remains challenging. High synthesis costs, limited shaping options for industrial use, and reduced performance under harsh operating conditions hinder scale-up. Exposure to humidity, elevated temperatures, and acidic gases can significantly degrade MOF stability and capture efficiency in real-world environments.
Nanoparticle toxicity concerns
Material properties depend on both chemical composition and physical form, which change significantly at the nanoscale. As particle size decreases, surface area and reactivity increase, raising potential health risks for living systems. Finely divided nanomaterials can exhibit higher toxicity than their larger counterparts because physical structure strongly influences biological response.Â
Asbestos illustrates this risk, remaining largely inert in bulk form but carcinogenic at nanoscale dimensions. Carbon nanotubes and graphite also raise toxicity concerns, although conclusive evidence of severe carbon nanotube toxicity remains limited.
Environmental exposure risks
Nanomaterials can unintentionally disperse into air, water, and soil, creating environmental risks. Metal-based nanoparticles such as lead and tin exhibit high stability and are nondegradable. These particles can accumulate in plants, animals, and human tissues, triggering toxic effects. The widespread use of silver nanoparticles also poses risks to aquatic ecosystems, with long-term environmental impacts not yet fully understood.
Inadequate characterization standards
Reliable characterization (the use of advanced techniques to identify the unique physical and chemical characteristics of nanomaterials) methods have not kept pace with the rapid commercialization of nanomaterials. Nanomaterials exhibit complex, application-dependent properties that exceed conventional chemical assessment frameworks.
- Inadequate characterization undermines manufacturing consistency and downstream application development.Â
- Without robust measurement standards, material performance varies across producers and laboratories.
- Properties such as agglomeration and aggregation remain difficult to assess, as they change over time, concentration, and environment.Â
- Once released into real-world conditions, nanomaterial behavior becomes highly variable, limiting the relevance of laboratory toxicity data for long-term risk assessment.
Regulatory gaps
The absence of standardized regulations in nanomaterial manufacturing leads to inconsistencies that affect both cost and performance, increasing uncertainty for producers and end users.
Energy-intensive manufacturing
Certain nanomaterials require significant energy inputs during production, which can partially offset their environmental benefits.
Economic barriers
The high upfront investment required for nanotechnology research and development remains a major barrier, often necessitating sustained support from both public and private sectors.
Unlocking nanomaterial’s climate potential
Nanomaterials offer a compelling pathway to strengthen climate mitigation efforts, delivering performance advantages that conventional materials cannot achieve. Their potential spans carbon capture, energy efficiency, and pollution control.
However, to move from laboratory success to meaningful climate impact depends on lowering production costs, improving consistency in material performance, and strengthening characterization and safety frameworks. Addressing these gaps is essential to build confidence across value chains and enable broader adoption.
Coordinated action across the industry is now critical. Active innovation is advancing nanomaterials for batteries, solar efficiency, and environmental remediation, with startups driving many of these breakthroughs. Scaling beyond laboratories and pilot facilities requires sustained investment and industry partnerships to integrate nanomaterials into existing manufacturing pathways and enable early market adoption.
