Towards a Uniform Description System for Materials on the Nanoscale

These substances, containing hundreds of thousands to hundreds of millions atoms (with leeway at both ends of that range), have rapidly evolved the potential to impact virtually every area of our physical world—health, food, engineering, transportation, energy. In many cases, nanomaterials are already part of our world. Yet unlike chemical and “normal” engineering materials, there is no accepted way to describe nanomaterials such that we know exactly which nanomaterial is being discussed, reported on, regulated, bought, or put into a commercial product. Simple chemical nomenclature does not suffice—nanomaterials have solid-like aspects beyond normal chemistry. Systems used for engineering materials, such as ceramics, metals, and polymers, do not capture the nanoscale features of form, size, surfaces, etc., that impart special properties to nanomaterials. Further, nanomaterials are the subject of intense interest in many disciplines, from chemistry, physics, and material science to food, medicine, and nutrition. The user communities are equally diverse, including researchers, product designers, purchasers, regulators, health experts, and many others. These users need to discuss and describe nanomaterials accurately. Nanomaterials themselves are not homogeneous except for their nanoscale size. Single-walled carbon nanotubes, quantum dots, titania nanoparticles, and thin film perovskites share little, except for their intriguing and exciting nanoscale-derived properties. So what can be done to describe nanomaterials in a way that meets the needs of diverse scientific disciplines, user communities, and nanomaterials themselves? During the last three years, a CODATA [1]-VAMAS [2] Working Group (WG) on Nanomaterials has worked on a multidisciplinary, multi-user community, international basis to develop a Uniform Description System for Materials on the Nanoscale (UDS). Version 1.0 of the UDS was released 1 February 2015 and is publicly available for download, use, and comment at www.codata.org/nanomaterials. The UDS has two primarily goals. The first is to describe nanomaterials uniquely, so that each is differentiated. The second is to determine when two instances of a nanomaterial are equivalent to whatever degree desired. The UDS was designed to meet both goals as well as to meet the needs of different disciplines and user communities for as many types of nanomaterials as possible. The CODATA-VAMAS WG is built on the work of many groups, including standards committees, database developers, and nanomaterials researchers. Before describing the UDS in more detail, it is important to mention several import facets of the present version. As Chemistry International readers well know from the work of IUPAC nomenclature committees, a description system is never complete. As new substances are discovered and synthesized and new knowledge is discovered about the structure and function of these substance, description and nomenclature systems must be updated and extended. We anticipate the same for the UDS, especially as the field of nanomaterials is advancing so rapidly. New uses for a description system will also require changes. So the release of version 1.0 of the UDS is not the end of the process. Changes will be required and improvements suggested. The IUPAC community is well positioned to help with this process, and comments, suggestions, and improvements are welcomed.