OECD Workshop on Graphene Family Materials

Within the framework of the OECD, recommendations and guidelines are developed that concern the safety and sustainability of advanced materials. These recommendations and guidelines are generally used for the regulation and approval of new materials and are therefore essential for successful commercialisation. The goals of this workshop were to get an overview of the GFM, identify important types and their areas of application. Current research results and their relevance to safety and sustainability were discussed. In individual groups, recommendations were then developed that are needed for regulatory preparedness and Safe(r)- and-Sustainable-by-Design. Over 80 experts from 17 countries worldwide participated in this workshop. This large international participation clearly shows the importance that graphene has now been given.

The efforts and successes of the Graphene Flagship in investigating the safety and sustainability of graphene and related materials were explicitly acknowledged, even though there are still some open questions. In particular, it is still unclear what drives the hazard of GFM. From this knowledge, it can then be derived what information is necessary for a hazard assessment. Furthermore, a further standardisation of test procedures is necessary. It is also crucial to understand how the materials change during their life cycle in different environments and conditions, the so-called life-cycle assessment. Another discussion concerned the similarity of different graphene family materials. Often, materials from different manufacturers and even from different batches differ slightly. However, it is unclear when a material can be declared as the same or different. It is expected that many insights gained now for GFM can also be applied to other advanced materials (beyond nano).