NIST/CSTL provides reference data, theoretical models, and artifact standards that are important to the chemical industry. These standards are used for process design and quality control, and help ensure traceability of field measurements to reliable, world-recognized standards.

Often referred to as the keystone industry because nearly every sector of the manufacturing economy uses its products, the US chemical industry ranks among the world's leading industries, accounting for an estimated one-quarter of total world chemical production. For the past several years, high energy costs had siphoned profits for the chemical industry despite the increase in demand for products. However 2003 showed improvements in profits and 2004 began with major US chemical companies posting their best results in years. According to a C&E News Report in December 2004, the “upturn is no longer elusive, and although challenges remain, prosperity is finally returning to the chemical industry”.

Projects in this Area:

       FY 2006

• NIST Researcher Improves Models for Thermodynamic Properties of Industrially Important Fluids
• NIST Releases a Thermodynamic and Transport Properties Database for Ionic Liquids: ILTHERMO
• The IUPAC International Chemical Identifier (InChI)
• Evaluation and Improvement of Molecular Simulation Methods
• Theoretical Models for the Study of Magnetic Properties in Metallic Nanoparticles
• Advances in Transport Property Modeling

       FY 2005

• The Transport Properties of Pentafluoroethane (R125)
• IUPAC Partnership Develops Standards and a Data Retrieval System for Ionic Liquids
• The IUPAC International Chemical Identifier (InChI)