The American National Standards Institute's Nanotechnology Standards Panel (ANSI-NSP) will host a meeting on February 28, 2017, to assess graphene commercialization and standardization needs. The meeting is free, and will be held at the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) in Arlington, VA, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Stakeholders will address key questions related to graphene, an atom-thick carbon allotrope, touted as one of the strongest known materials. Ultimately, the workshop is intended to determine whether existing graphene-related standards or standards currently under development meet stakeholder needs. The event will serve as a forum for suggestions and solutions.
Key discussions will cover whether current technology is advanced enough to begin the development of graphene-specific standards. Participants will also identify those standards that are needed to aid in the commercialization of graphene-based and graphene-enabled products.
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"Graphene is an exciting material that has been shown to have many potentially useful properties based on results found in laboratory tests," said Shaun Clancy, Ph.D., ANSI-NSP co-chair and director of product regulatory services, Evonik Degussa Corporation. "As the material moves from the lab into the market it is important for terminology, metrology, and, in some cases, applications to be made more consistent, and standardized practices can assist in all of these areas."
Potential meeting stakeholders should include industrial representatives from companies either producing graphene or utilizing graphene in their products, standards organizations involved in the development of relevant standards, and interested parties and technical experts participating in related standards activities.
"Given the promising potential of graphene, we need to approach graphene standardization in a well-thought-out manner," said Ajit Jilavenkatesa, Ph.D., ANSI-NSP co-chair and senior standards policy advisor for the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) of the U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC). "In order to have the needed standards at the right time, we need to have a good understanding of standardization priorities, the state of art, and the body of knowledge that can be leveraged to ensure that the resulting standards are robust and meet the needs of stakeholders."
Register for the ANSI-Nanotechnology Standards Panel Meeting online or contact Heather Benko ([email protected]) for more information.
About ANSI-NSP
Formed in 2004, ANSI-NSP serves as the cross-sector coordinating body for the facilitation of standards development in the area of nanotechnology. Shaun Clancy, Ph.D., director of product regulatory services for the Evonik Degussa Corporation, and Ajit Jilavenkatesa, Ph.D., senior standards policy advisor, NIST, serve as the ANSI-NSP co-chairs.
Nanotechnology, linked to nanoscale science and engineering, involves the understanding and control of matter at the nanoscale, (approximately 1-to-100 nanometers), where unique phenomena allow for innovation and novel technological applications.
The ANSI-NSP works to provide a forum for standards developing organizations (SDOs), government entities, academia, and industry to identify needs and establish recommendations for the creation or updating of standards related to nanotechnology and nanomaterials. In addition, the ANSI-NSP solicits participation from nanotechnology-related groups that have not traditionally been involved in the voluntary consensus standards system, while also promoting cross-sector collaborative efforts.