How can Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) move from a guiding principle to something that researchers and companies can actually use when developing new materials? This question is addressed in “Advancing titanium dioxide coated photocatalytic depolluting surfaces: Leveraging ASINA’s roadmap for safer and sustainable solutions”, published in the Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal. The paper is led by Irini Furxhi of CNR-ISSMC, together with corresponding author Anna Costa, also from CNR-ISSMC and connected with the PINK project. Using titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanomaterials as a case study, the publication shows how functionality, safety, environmental sustainability and cost can be brought together in quantitative SSbD decision-making.
A central contribution of the work is translating SSbD ambitions into measurable criteria for actual design decisions. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are linked with Key Decision Factors (KDFs) – variables that developers can influence – and physicochemical characteristics of the materials.
Making SSbD measurable and looking across the lifecycle
“The quest for comprehensive quantitative metrics, approaches and methodologies that encapsulate the SSbD ethos are ongoing.”
Rather than assessing safety and sustainability only after development, this approach enables different design options to be compared while innovation is still underway – without losing sight of the material’s required functionality. The methodology is demonstrated with TiO₂-based photocatalytic coatings designed to remove air pollutants. Assessment accompanies the material through synthesis, incorporation into products, use and end-of-life. The relevant criteria change along this journey: performance, human health hazards, CO₂ emissions and costs during synthesis are complemented by occupational exposure during manufacturing, consumer and environmental exposure during use, and regeneration or potential release at end-of-life.
“This approach ensures safety and sustainability from the earliest stages of innovation, going beyond regulatory compliance…”
Finding better compromises
An important feature of SSbD is that there is rarely one perfect solution. Maximising technical performance, for example, may conflict with minimising environmental impact or cost. The roadmap therefore uses multi-criteria decision methods to identify multi-optimal design options.
“The methodological power resides in the simultaneous assessment of all KPIs to find multi-optimal SSbD solutions.”
This makes trade-offs transparent and allows functionality, safety, sustainability and economic considerations to inform design decisions simultaneously.
Connecting the roadmap to PINK
The scientific connection to PINK is particularly relevant. PINK similarly addresses how heterogeneous information on material properties, functionality, safety and sustainability can be made interoperable and used within computational approaches supporting SSbD.
The ASINA roadmap therefore provides a practical example of a challenge at the heart of PINK: turning SSbD from a set of principles into a structured, data-driven process for materials innovation.
“The established methodology is available for use by other researchers and innovators in the field.”
The publication acknowledges financial support from the PINK project (Grant Agreement No. 101137809). If you like to read the full publication use this link.
