Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by hammock 1066 days ago
Carbon nanoparticles might pose their own risk, though my intuition suggests the threat is not as immediate or great as that from lead
1 comments

It would not surprise me if carbon nanoparticles could act in a similar way to asbestos, if inhaled.
This has already been shown to be true, many times.

There are significant problems with swcnts (and even more so with dwcnts or mwcnts, due to less effective macrophage breakdown from h2o2 release). But there are some applications where their use can be a large improvement. The fact that only very well trained professionals should ever come in contact with certain materials (like extremely high powered lines) makes this use case more acceptable. Additionally, concealing swcnts in a polymer and using extrusion methods of chlorosulfonic acid into carbon tetrachloride to make really compact nanowires can help quite a bit for making the product affect the public less if any problem may occur that downs the power lines.