Independent Testing for Advanced Carbon Materials

The Advanced Carbons Council runs an independent testing programme built to answer the question the market keeps asking: does this material actually do what the datasheet says? We characterise and validate advanced carbon materials against internationally recognised standards and established best practice, so producers, buyers, investors and regulators can work from the same evidence base rather than competing marketing claims.

Where Testing Is Used

Independent testing underpins decisions across the carbon value chain:

Standards and Best Practice

Our methods follow the frameworks recognised across the materials industry, including standards published by ISO, IEC and ASTM, and the ISO-based classification framework that gives advanced carbons a shared vocabulary. Every reported result is traceable to a defined, validated method, so it can be repeated and defended.

Testing spans more than twenty validated analytical methods, grouped by what they measure:

• Mechanical testing: tensile strength and modulus, flexural and compressive strength, impact resistance, hardness, and interlaminar shear for fibres and composites.

• Barrier and permeation testing: hydrogen permeation and gas barrier performance for composites, liners and pressure components.

• Thermal testing: thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) for purity, thermal stability and ash content, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and thermal conductivity.

• Structural and spectroscopic analysis: Raman spectroscopy for layer count, defect density and structural quality, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) for crystallinity.

• Surface area and porosity: BET analysis for specific surface area and pore structure.

• Morphology and imaging: scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM and TEM) for particle size, morphology and dispersion.

• Surface chemistry: X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and FTIR for functionalisation and oxidation state.

• Chemical purity and composition: elemental and trace-metal analysis, including ICP, plus ash and residue content.

• Electrical characterisation: sheet resistance, bulk and surface conductivity, and EMI shielding effectiveness.

These methods apply across the ten carbon material segments the Council tracks, from graphene, carbon nanotubes and nanodiamonds to carbon fibre, graphite, biochar and recycled carbons.

The methods above are a starting point, not the limit. We also run application development and use-case testing, building bespoke programmes around how your material behaves in a real product or process. If your requirement is not listed, contact us and we will scope it with you.

From Testing to Verification

Testing is the evidence layer beneath ACC Verification. Where an independent test confirms a company genuinely produces a material to standard, that result can support entry to the ACC Verified registry, the in-person, on-site programme that separates real production capacity from announced capacity. Testing tells you what a material is; verification confirms the company can make it, repeatably.

How it works

A straightforward path from enquiry to a report you can act on.