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Material Measurement Laboratory

Chemical Sciences Division

Nearly every aspect of our high quality of life—the health care that brings us into the world, the food, vitamins, and medicines that sustain us, and the consumer products we enjoy and rely upon—depends on chemistry.

Food safety and nutrition
Food Safety
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NIST Biorepository
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Human Health
Botanical Supplements 2
DSQAP Consortium
Nano Metrology
Nano Metrology
Photomontage showing concrete mixing, an oil refinery, steel production, and metal ingots.
Industrial Commodities

Welcome to the Chemical Sciences Division

We provide the measurement science, standards, technology, and data that help members of industry, other government agencies, and academia advance the chemical sciences. From assessing human health with diagnostic tests to determining the nutritional value of food and supplements and understanding impacts of chemical contamination, the Chemical Sciences Division provides tools that enhance economic security and improve quality of life.

News and Updates

Events

NIST Food Safety Workshop

Mon, Oct 28 - Thu, Oct 31 2019
NIST has extensive experience in preparation and characterization of reference materials and providing measurement
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Projects and Programs

Photograph depicting IC manufacturing showing glowing squares on a round wafer, with a yellow triangular warning indicator labeled UV.

Advanced IC Interconnects - Process Metrology and Models

Ongoing
Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is increasingly being utilized as a method of depositing the thin (nanometer-scale), conformal layers required for many microelectronics applications, including high - gate dielectric layers, diffusion barrier layers, copper seed layers, and DRAM dielectric layers...
Interior view of a long, multistory scientific facility filled with large tubular guides, elevated walkways, and electronic instrumentation.

Advanced Materials Characterization

Ongoing
This program seeks to continually enhance the analytical competence of MML and other major operating units at NIST. Furthermore, the program makes available technical capabilities that U.S. industry and government need in their quest to compete on a global scale through improving methods and...
Hexagon containing words “environmental metabolomics” with arrows pointing from the hexagon to each of the following images: coral, shrimp, mussel, microbe, horseshoe crab, plant. The circle figure has waves and a tree faded in the background.

Applications in Metabolomics

Ongoing
The application of metabolomics techniques to systems biology reveals insights into model and non-model organism biology. The natural world contains undiscovered chemicals and mechanisms that can be harnessed by industry to create new biomanufacturing processes and products. Each biological system...
Photograph of gas cylinders

Audit of EPA Protocol Gas Suppliers

Ongoing
Protocol gas standards are employed in measurements made for compliance purposes; one of the major uses is for measurements of regulated gaseous species from stationary source emitters, i.e., stack gases. Many of these stationary sources are regulated through the Cap and Trade program; therefore...

Publications

Best-Practice Reporting for Porous Materials Adsorption Data

Author(s)
Daniel Siderius, Louis Vanduyfhuys, Jack Evans, Paul Iacomi, Veronique Van Speybroeck, Volodymyr Bon, Stefan Kaskel
Recent decades have seen an enormous evolution of novel porous materials for catalysis, energy efficient processes, and sustainable technologies to improve life...

Awards

2026 - Dal Nogare Award---Andre Striegel

The Chromatography Forum of the Delaware Valley honors Dr. André Striegel of the NIST Material Measurement Laboratory with the prestigious Dal Nogare Award, given to an outstanding scientist in the field of chromatography. He is honored for his...

Press Coverage

Featured Videos

Reference Materials and Reliable Food Measurements

Reference Materials and Reliable Food Measurements

NIST Analytical Chemistry Supports Industry and Health

NIST Analytical Chemistry Supports Industry and Health

NIST Chemist Melissa Phillips on Carbon

NIST Chemist Melissa Phillips on Carbon

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