ISSN 19950780, Nanotechnologies in Russia, 2013, Vol. 8, Nos. 5–6, pp. 392–395. © Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2013. Original Russian Text © E.A. Titov, 2013, published in Rossiiskie Nanotekhnologii, 2013, Vol. 8, Nos. 5–6.
Development of Projects on International Nanotechnology Standardization E. A. Titov AllRussia Scientific Research Institute of Standardization and Certification in Mechanical Engineering, ul. Shenogina 4, Moscow, 123007 Russia email:
[email protected] Received October 19, 2012; in final form February 6, 2013
Abstract—Projects on nanotechnology standardization carried out by international standardization organi zations in 2011–2012 are reviewed and the involvement of the Russian delegation in this work is shown. Spe cial attention is paid to the standardization of nanotechnology terms to promote the unambiguous under standing of information. DOI: 10.1134/S199507801303018X
International organizations on standardization such as the ISO and IEC are pursuing a coordinated policy aimed at the further development of projects on nanotechnology standardization. First and foremost, this concerns the creation of a uniform terminology and the development of guidelines for classifications, metrological provision, and safety issues related to the development, manufacture, and fulfillment of nanos cale materials and products based on the latter. The 13th meeting of ISO TC 229 Nanotechnology held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in November 2011 under the chairmanship of Dr. Peter Hatto was marked by the commencement of a series of works on nanotechnology standardization. Currently, the TC 229 is being presided over by Dr. Simon Hollander, who replaced Dr. P. Hatto; both are representatives of Great Britain. No other changes, either in personnel or in structure, have taken place in the TC.
list of ISO TC 229 terminological projects, in which the published documents are denoted by asterisks. ISO/IEC 800041:2010*… Part 1. Core terms ISO/IEC 800042… Part 2. Nanoobjects (revision of TS 27687:2008*) ISO/IEC 800043:2010*… Part 3. Carbon nanoobjects ISO 800044:2011*… Part 4. Nanostructured materials ISO 8000441… Part 4.1. Nanostructured powder ISO 8000442… Part 4.2. Nanocomposites ISO 8000443… Part 4.3. Solid nanofoam
I would like to remind the readers that the ISO TC 229 consists of four working groups that function in close cooperation with each other. The first and the second groups are united; their expert team includes representatives of the IEC TC 113 Nanotechnology Standardization for Electrical and Electronic Prod ucts and Systems (Fig. 1). Joint Working Group (JWG) 1 deals with issues of establishing unified terminology and common guide lines for the classification of nanotechnologies and nanoscale products. The terminological documents are developed by stages in the form of interrelated 8004 series vocabularies. By the beginning of the 14th ses sion in Stresa, Italy, the list of documents under devel opment and those to be developed had comprised ten denominations. Part 4 of the ISO/TS 80044 Nano structured Materials document is supposed to be com plemented by five subsections with time (see below the 392
STRUCTURE OF THE ISO/IEC TC ISO TC 229 Nanotechnology
IEC TC 113 Nanotechnology standardization for electrical and electronic products and systems
JWG 1 Nanotechnology terminology and nomenclature JWG 2 Measurements and characterization WG 3 Health, safety, WG 3 Characterization of nanotechnology and environmental environmental aspects materials for electrical of nanotechnology and electronic products and systems
WG 4 Nanotechnology material specification Fig. 1. Structure of the ISO TC 229 and the IEC TC 113 and cooperation between them.
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ISO 8000444… Part 4.4. Nanoporous materials ISO 8000445… Part 4.5. Nanodispersed liquids ISO 800045:2011*… Part 5. Nano/bio interface ISO/IEC 800046… Part 6. Nanoscale measure ments and instrumentation ISO 800047:2011*… Part 7. Nanotechnology for healthcare ISO/IEC 800048… Part 8. Nanomanufacturing processes ISO/IEC 800049… Part 9. Electrical and elec tronic products and systems ISO/IEC 8000410… Part 10. Photonic compo nents and systems. The activities of joint working group 1 of the ISO TC229 (JWG 1) are aimed at establishing a uniform nomenclature and classification in the fields of nano technologies. The ISO/TR 12802:2010(E) Nanotech nologies. Model Taxonomic Framework for Use in Developing Vocabularies. The Core Concepts norma tive document is designed to facilitate the creation of a nanotechnology vocabulary system. A classification of nanotechnologies in the form of a hierarchic struc ture, the socalled nanotree, is presented in ISO/TR 11360:2010(E) Nanotechnologies. Methodology for the Classification and Categorization of Nanomateri als standard. By now, the both documents have been submitted to the Rosstandart (Russian Standard) for approval as recommended guidelines for standardiza tion. JWG 2 deals with issues of metrological provision for nanotechnologies. Fifteen normative documents are being under development now by JWG 2 at various stages; these documents establish the measurement methods for various nanoobjects by means of modern microscopy and spectrometry. Concerning the metro logical provision for the development and manufac ture of nanomaterials, the intensive development of standards for methods for the inspection and measure ment of physical properties of nanoobjects in combi nation with visualization facilities is being continued. The scope of the working group WG 3 covers issues of safety, including environmental aspects and health protection for those who deal with nanomaterials in their professional activities and as consumers of nano products. Worldwide research of the effects of nano particles on the environment and the health of person nel at enterprises that produce nanoproducts and the consumers of nanoproducts are laid down as standard requirements and regulations of the normative docu ments in the form of recommendations aimed at securing the guaranteed safety level. As a rule, such research is carried out using conventional methods in vitro and in vivo. At the 13th Session of the ISO TC 229 held in Johannesburg, a road map for the development of nanotechnology terminology for healthcare was proposed. One very significant aspect of the activity of WG 3 should be pointed out: within the framework of the NANOTECHNOLOGIES IN RUSSIA
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group, a joint team of 45 experts from various coun tries was set up to solve the problem of marking both nanoobjects and products that contain nanoobjects. The document, considering its global significance for the world community, was withdrawn from the responsibility of the European CEN TC 352 Nano technology organization and assigned to the ISO TC 229, which becomes the leader of the project with the participation of the CEN experts in it. In the first meeting of the joint working group of experts on June 12, 2012, the decision to divide the project into two documents was taken owing to fundamental dif ferences in approaches to the marking of nanoobjects and end products containing these nanoobjects. When considering the application field of a docu ment draft in the CEN version, a debate arose among the experts over the addition of the prefix “nano” to the names of products referred to as nanoproducts, since it was directly indicated in the application field of the standard that it was necessary to treat the names of any products of nanotechnology industry in that way and not in any other. The authors of this paper strongly disagree with such an approach, which was announced to the experts of WG 3. Our opinion was supported by the majority, and the mention of the pre fix “nano” was excluded from the text of the applica tion field. This is an extremely significant and crucial matter. Which products can the prefix “nano” added to their names? I think we should thoroughly consider it. In my opinion, the prefix “nano” should be added to all dispersed nanoobjects such as nanoparticles, nanofibers, nano plates of any chemical elements and substances, and to the names of some nanomaterials in the liquid or solid phase (for instance, to nanosilver as a nanopow der consisting of nanoparticles of silver, nanoclay, nanosand, etc.); the prefix ‘nano” should be used in the names of functionally finished products only in those cases when any of the overall sizes of the product is in the nanoscale at least in one of its dimensions, for exam ple, nanorobots of the near future and their compo nents. Any “macro” nanoproduct must be called by its original name and carry a label that indicates the achieved effect, its safety level, and information that it was produced by nanotechnological methods. The scope of WG 4 is a standardization of the char acterization of the nanoscale substances and materials and the development of promising nanoscale materials of current interest. Much attention is paid to selecting the parameters of nanoobjects of various substances to be standardized. A list of priorities in the development of standards was compiled for the next series of nano materials and nanoobjects of substances, as a rule, in the form of powder. At present, a list of such materials is rather short; it can be given in its complete form: —nanocellulose, —fullerene (C60), 2013
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NANOCELLULOSE
Cellulose nanoobjects
Nanocrystalline cellulose
Nanostructured cellulose
Cellulose nanocomposites
Cellulose microfiber
Cellulose nanocomposites
Fig. 2. Structure of work program on the standardization of nanocellulose.
Quantum phenomena in the nanotechnologies
Quantumconfined effects Examples: Tunnel effect de Broglie waves Quantum well Coulomb blockade and others
Indirect quantum effects Quantumstructural effects Examples: Photoeffect Josephson effect Casimir effect Quantized Hall effect
Examples: Photochromism Rhodopsin Spin electronics Selforganization Quantum computer Inseparability and others
Fig. 3. Classification of the quantum phenomena as applied to nanotechnology.
—single and multiwall carbon nanotubes (SWCNT and MWNT), —silver (Ag), —iron (Fe), —titanium dioxide (TiO2), —aluminum oxide (Al2O3), —ceric oxide (CeO2), —zinc oxide (ZnO), —silicon dioxide (SiO2), —dendrimers, —nanoclay, —gold (Au). In the above list, nanocellulose, the properties of which are needed most at the present stage of develop ment of nanotechnology and the commercial utiliza tion of nanoscale products, occupies the first place. A program to standardize various nanocellulose mod ifications is being drawn up, in particular, of its crystal line forms and environmentally friendly degradable films that are intended to replace polyethylene and
other poorly degradable or naturally indecomposable materials (Fig. 2). In Russia there is only one enter prise, EFKONT, conducting research and develop ment into nanocellulose now. Having made a brief review of directions in the cur rent activity of the TC 229 working groups, let us recur to the matter of complexity and completeness of the vocabularies of various nanotechnology aspects intended to be developed in the framework of WG 1. Currently, works aimed at creating and upgrading a complex of nanotechnologyterm vocabularies sys temized according to a taxonomic scheme are con stantly in process. So far, ten vocabularies are at differ ent development stages, five of them having already been published as international documents. The Rus sian delegation put forth a proposal for the develop ment of a standard to systemize and define quantum phenomena involved in nanotechnologies. The avail ability of such a vocabulary would facilitate not only the establishment of a uniform technical nanotech nology language, but also serve as an additional crite rion for identifying both nanotechnologies and
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nanoobjects and products manufactured on the basis of the latter. This idea had been nurtured for a long time. Before it got its final wording and was submitted to the national TC 441, Dr. Clive Willis, Canada, pres ently the convener for JWG 1 of the ISO TC 229, was familiarized with it and asked for his advice about this initiative. Mr. Willis supported the idea on the whole as promising. After being approved in the TC 441 meet ing held on April 5, 2012, an application in accor dance with the set form for starting a new project was submitted to the ISO Secretariat. From the June 11–15, 2012, in Stresa, near Milan, Italy, the 14th meeting of the ISO TC 229 was held, where the first Russian initiative to commence devel opment of a new item was reported and discussed. A list containing more than 30 terms referring to quantum phenomena subdivided into three groups (Fig. 3) was submitted to the ISO TC 229. Initially it was supposed that the draft of the docu ment would include the names of quantum phenom ena that are directly related to the emergence of one or another manufacturing process. However, in the con text of the discussion of marking the nanoproducts, the necessity of having at least a list of effects in no way related to nanotechnologies as a precaution against unscrupulous manufacturers was brought to light; pre viously, the decision had been taken to indicate not only the achieved qualitative effect, but also the quan tum phenomenon which enabled the manufacture of this or that product when marking a nanoproduct. In addition to the Russian application, two more new projects were considered, from which only one joint British–German application was adopted (Fig. 4). In the concluding plenary meeting of this session, a new list of vocabularies accepted for development was presented in the closing report; this list, which con tains 20 names—no. 12 is the item proposed by the
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Fig. 4. List of terminology standards being developed by ISO TC 229 and IEC TC 113.
Russian Federation—is presented in Fig. 4 in its orig inal configuration. This is a satisfying result for Russian prestige; how ever, leading the development of probably the most scienceintensive document of nanotechnology vocabularies requires considerable efforts. The fact that there is no mechanism for financing projects of this kind causes some anxiety. But we hope for the best and believe that this problem will nevertheless be resolved. This report may contribute to finding a solu tion to it. Translated by O. Lotova
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