News
04-October 2010 – Supporting
nanoscience - LGC Standards launches range of reference
nanomaterials
LGC Standards collaborates with European Commission
JRC to introduce reference nanomaterials for nanoscience
research
LGC
Standards, Europe’s leading supplier of reference materials,
has launched a range of reference nanomaterials to aid research and
testing into the applications and impacts of nanotechnology, which
is widely regarded as one of the most important new technologies of
the 21st century.
Nanotechnology holds considerable promise 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. Nanomaterials are now used in a wide range of
applications from food packaging and sunscreens to surface coatings
and sports equipment. With the increasing presence of nanomaterials
in new products, there has been a substantial increase in research
into their manufacture, characterisation and applications and this
has been matched by growth in demand for characterised reference
materials.
One of the most comprehensive nanomaterial research programmes
is being carried out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development’s (OECD) 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 development of
data would support characterisation, measurement, toxicological and
ecotoxicological testing, and risk assessment or safety evaluation
of Manufactured Nanomaterials.”
The range of reference nanomaterials used within the OECD WPMN
international testing programme and released by the European
Commission JRC are now available from LGC Standards. They include:
multi-walled carbon nanotubes, silver nanoparticles, titanium
dioxide, cerium oxide, zinc oxide, and silicon dioxide.
Jane Firth, Sector Manager at LGC Standards, commented: "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."
These reference materials are available from LGC Standards
(www.lgcstandards.com),
the division of LGC that provides products and services to support
measurement in the laboratory. For prices and ordering information,
please email: askus@lgcstandards.com or tel:
+44 (0)20 8943 8480.
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Notes to
editors