Nanotechnology is often touted as a solution to many of the global ills facing our planet. It is expected to have a significant impact on developing “green” and “clean” technologies, improving water treatment, and making renewable energy applications profitable. The flip side, however, is that certain nanomaterial production technologies are actually not environmentally benign, but have a considerable energy footprint. A recent paper in the journal Environmental Science & Technology looked at the material and energy intensity of fullerene production. Fullerenes are considered to be promising materials for use in photovoltaics. The paper’s authors conducted a life cycle assessment to assess the energy intensity of producing C60 and C70 fullerenes. Their work is designed to provide a baseline to evaluate future product developments and guide product design and research. According to Annick Anctil, one of the researchers, “The primary goal of this study is to use the calculated energy intensity of modified fullerene production to determine opportunities for future process innovations to minimize environmental impact. As secondary objectives, this study serves both to fully document a life cycle inventory of fullerene production and to investigate the relative importance of nanomaterials in the products in which they are used, as demonstrated through examples of C60 used in an aluminum composite and PCBM derivative used in organic solar cell applications.” The embodied energy of fullerenes are, say the authors, an order of magnitude higher than most common chemicals, so cutoff rules based on mass should not be applied routinely to simplify lifecycle assessment of products containing nanomaterials. The article can be viewed online at the link below.