LGC Standards has launched a series of reference nanomaterials to aid research and testing into the applications of nanotechnology, which range from food packaging to sports equipment.
Nanotechnology is being used in many technological areas and industrial sectors and the application of nanoscience to everyday products means they can be made lighter, stronger, cleaner and more effective, according to the company.
With the increasing presence of nanomaterials in new products, there has been an increase in research into their manufacture, characterisation and applications and this has been matched by growth in demand for characterised reference materials.
A nanomaterial research programme is being carried out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD's) Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials (WPMN).
Dr Christoph Klein, representing the European Commission's Joint Research Centre - Institute for Health and Consumer Protection (IHCP) on the WPMN, said: 'At IHCP, our primary goal is to provide scientific support to European Union policy regarding nanotechnology and public health in a sustainable environment.
'Within the WPMN, we have focused our work on a priority list of representative manufactured nanomaterials for which the development of data would support characterisation, measurement, toxicological and ecotoxicological testing and the risk assessment or safety evaluation of manufactured nanomaterials,' he added.
The range of reference nanomaterials used within the OECD WPMN international testing programme and released by the European Commission JRC is now available from LGC Standards.
The materials include multi-walled carbon nanotubes, silver nanoparticles, titanium dioxide, cerium oxide, zinc oxide and silicon dioxide.
Jane Firth, sector manager at LGC Standards, said: 'LGC Standards provides laboratory-quality management solutions, serving customers across a wide range of industries, from pharmaceuticals to food and from life science to the materials industries.
'Nanoscience has applications across all these sectors and we are extremely pleased to add nanomaterials to our range of 70,000 reference materials.
'These reference nanomaterials provide researchers with characterised materials for use in their testing models,' she added.
