Nanotechnology characteristics and measurement standards are published by ISO and IEC. Because many nanomaterials have different properties based on a variety of different factors, it is important to understand the properties of each in their different forms and chemical composition. The different chemistries include titanium dioxide, calcium carbonate, and more, and many of the listed documents cover different aspects of the materials in their powder forms.
ISO/TR 11360:2010 describes a classifying system, termed a nano-tree , upon whose basis wide ranges of nanomaterials can be categorized, including nano-objects, nanostructures and nanocomposites of various dimensionality of different physical, chemical, magnetic and biological properties.
This document specifies development of representative test materials consisting of nano-objects in dry powder form, to enable test method development and improve comparability of data for nanotechnology applications. It includes the physico-chemical properties (specifically, size and shape, specific surface area, crystal structure, and bulk chemical composition) that are required to be measured and reported with the representative test material.
This document specifies the fundamental characteristics to be measured of a sample of engineered nanoparticles in powder form to determine the size, the chemical content and the surface area. This document also specifies measurement methods for determining each of the characteristics. It is intended to facilitate communication among consumers, regulators and industries with the necessary characteristics. It excludes characteristics that pertain to specific industrial applications of nanoparticles in powder form and detailed measurement protocols, as well as characteristics related to health, safety and environmental issues.
IEC/TS 62622:2012(E), which is a technical specification, specifies the generic terminology for the global and local quality parameters of artificial gratings, interpreted in terms of deviations from nominal positions of grating features, and provides guidance on the categorization of measurement and evaluation methods for their determination. This specification is intended to facilitate communication among manufacturers, users and calibration laboratories dealing with the characterization of the dimensional quality parameters of artificial gratings used in nanotechnology. This specification supports quality assurance in the production and use of artificial gratings in different areas of application in nanotechnology. Whilst the definitions and described methods are universal to a large variety of different gratings, the focus is on one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) gratings.
ISO/TS 11937 provides requirements to describe the basic characteristics of titanium dioxide in powder form relevant for applications in nanotechnology. It is intended to detail the materials specification necessary to use titanium dioxide in the applications related to nanotechonology. It is limited to dry powders and does not include materials dispersed or suspended in water or solvents. It does not cover characteristics for health and safety issue, and for specific application of titanium dioxide or for surface modification, if coated.
ISO/TS 11931:2012 provides requirements to describe the basic characteristics of nanoscale calcium carbonate in powder form relevant for applications in nanotechnology. It is intended to detail the material specification necessary to use CaCO 3 in the applications related to nanotechnology. It does not cover characteristics specific for health and safety issues, and for specific applications of nanoscale CaCO 3 .
ISO/TR 18196:2016 provides a matrix that guides users to commercially available techniques relevant to the measurements of common physiochemical parameters for nano-objects. Some techniques are also applicable to nanostructured materials.