NIST Develops Nanotube Standard

NIST has issued the first standard reference material for single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). The material provides nanotech researchers and companies with well-characterized, homogeneous samples of SWNT powder for use in chemical and toxicity analyses. Each sample has certified values for common impurities, including barium, cerium, chlorine, cobalt, dysprosium, europium, gadolinium, lanthanum, molybdenum, and samarium. SWNT powder is known to vary from one batch to the next, making interlaboratory comparisons of data, such as toxicity measurements, difficult. Many samples are contaminated with other forms of carbon and metal catalysts. “Batch-to-batch, raw carbon nanotube powder samples have varied so much that there is no interlaboratory consistency,” NIST chemical engineer Jeffrey A. Fagan says. NIST’s new material is guaranteed to be uniform from batch to batch.