Ranking of Nanotechnologies Based on Effective Factors in Decision Making– Macro Level Policy Making in Iran

In this paper hazard of nano-material application is taken into consideration for ranking of nanomaterials. In other words, the importance of toxicity caused by nano material usage is a part and parcel of this research. And for the first time in the literature, the maximum amount of allowed nano-materials in the air is considered as an effective quantitative factor in prioritizing the nano-material alternatives. With respect to the problem of ranking the properties, a new multi-objective model is proposed to determine the priority of nano-materials. Solving the new model, proved that by adding toxicity factor to the previous factors in the literature, a completely new ranking of nano-materials would be presented. The validity of the presented ranking is confirmed by Spearman Correlation Coefficient. It should be mentioned that the different rankings achieved in our research is mainly due to addition of toxicity factor in our model. This issue is an endorsement of the fact that addition of the ignored factor, toxicity, changes the results and rankings of the prior research work. Results of this paper may be referred to by future researcher and may be of value to macroeconomic policy makers, private investors and factories interested in ranking and selecting the best field of nano technology.