Hidden costs: Carbon nanofibres were chosen for one of the studies as they have attracted attention in recent years due to their exceptional electrical and mechanical properties.

Credit: Wikimedia

First research of its kind

"Very little life cycle assessment has been done of nanotechnology and little attention has been paid to the environmental impacts of manufacturing of nanomaterials [before now]," said Reid Lifset, a scientist at Yale University in New Haven, U.S. and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Industrial Ecology.

According to Peter Binks, the chief executive officer of Nanotechnology Victoria, a nanotech lobbying body at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, this is the first time that "very important" research of this nature, has been carried out.

Nanotechnology manufacture, is however at an early stage, commented Binks, and will no doubt be refined over time, in the same way that conventional manufacturing has. Comparison between "the first outputs of an emerging technology" and established products like aluminium may therefore be inappropriate, he said.