I was recently reading a the introductory statements in an older issue of the American Chemical Society’s journal Chemical Reviews. The issue was devoted to Environmental Chemistry, and the guest editor was Prof. István T. Horváth, currently a professor at the Institute of Chemistry at Eötvös University, in Budapest, Hungary (formerly a senior staff chemist at the Exxon Research and Engineering Company). I admit, I was originally looking for an article on dye-sensitized solar cells, but this introduction has an outstanding comment on ethical behavior in materials development. Something to mull over:
Introduction: Chemists should be aware of the environmental implication of their chemistry.
“I hope that dedicating an issue of Chemical Reviews to environmental chemistry will increase environmental awareness among chemists. For example, it is no longer sufficient to make “marvelous” new molecules solely on the basis of their marketable properties. Although marketability is an appropriate goal, we, as scientists, must also be concerned with our creations’ potentials for environmental impact. At the same time, we should constantly tighten our scientific standards for generating experimental data, so that any conclusions drawn from such are and will be unambiguous …
It is in our interest, indeed, in the interest of all of society, to remain vigilant to the impacts of chemicals on the environment. We would strive to keep environmentally acceptable processes alive and minimize our activities that involve unmanageable environmental risks.“
I find it interesting that over 10 years after his comments, we are only beginning to realize the huge environmental influence that chemists and materials scientists hold in their hands when they introduce ”marvelous“ new materials (including photocatalytic nanoparticles, quantum well lasers, ultracapacitors, and carbon nanotubes). Once a material is introduced and developed on a global scale, the waste component arises for material disposal, followed by issues of materials fate in the environment. As scientists and engineers, we have a responsibility to remain aware of the global environment when we make new materials for society.