Principles and scope. 1. The purpose of this Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is to establish a formal basis for co-operation with a view to further strengthening the dialogue and co- operation between EIOPA and FINMA within their respective statutory remits pertaining to insurance regulation and supervision, and more in particular regarding: • the exchange of information and assistance relating to insurance groups under group supervision of FINMA or of a supervisory authority considered a Voting Member or Observer in EIOPA’s Board of Supervisors1 and have business activities in the respective jurisdiction of the other authority, in particular exchange of information and assistance relating to the work of EEA and FINMA Colleges, and action required in emergency situations. • the exchange of information for macro-prudential (financial stability) purposes, such as monitoring and assessment of risks, interconnectedness, and stress testing.
Principles and scope. 1. Within the framework of, and subject to, the provisions of this Convention, there shall be no restrictions on the right to supply services within the territory of the Member States in respect of natural persons, companies or firms of Member States who are established in a Member State other than that of the natural person, company or firm for whom the services are intended.
Principles and scope. 1. Within the framework of, and subject to, the provisions of this Convention, there shall be no restrictions on the right of establishment of companies or firms, formed in accordance with the law of a Member State and having their registered office, central administration or principal place of business in the territory of the Member States. This shall also apply to the setting up of agencies, branches or subsidiaries by companies or firms of any Member State established in the territory of any other Member State. The right of establishment shall include the right to set up, acquire and manage undertakings, in particular companies or firms within the meaning of paragraph 2, under the conditions laid down for its own undertakings by the law of the Member State where such establishment is effected, subject to the provisions set out hereafter.
Principles and scope. 1. Within the framework of, and subject to, the provisions of this Convention, there shall be no restrictions on the right of establishment of companies or firms, formed in accordance with the law of a Member State and having their registered office, central administration or principal place of business in the territory of the Member States. This shall also apply to the setting up of agencies, branches or subsidiaries by companies or firms of any Member State established in the territory of any other Member State.
Principles and scope. TGA is a technique that measures the change in weight of a sample when it is heated, cooled or held at constant temperature in a controlled atmosphere. Its main use is to characterize materials with regard to their composition. In particular, TGA is used to determine a material thermal stability and its fraction of volatile and/or decomposition components by monitoring the weight change that occurs as a sample/specimen is heated. The measurement is normally carried out in air or in an inert atmosphere, such as N2, He or Ar, and the weight is recorded as a function of increasing temperature.
Principles and scope. The associated water, volatile, oxidize-able and/or decomposable organic and inorganic matter are estimated by sequentially measuring weight loss in MNM samples after heating at selected temperatures. Weight loss is measured after heating at 110ºC overnight to remove water and other low-volatile compounds, at 550ºC for at least four hours to remove organic matter, and at 1050ºC overnight to remove carbonates as well as to decompose carbon-based materials such as carbon black and carbon nanotubes. Higher temperatures may be required in special cases if analyses are performed on some highly resistant phases and information on e.g., crystal-bound OH, F, CO, SO or other species. Based on the results from different standard heating temperatures, a simple modal compositional profile can be generated rapidly and for very low cost. This profile is sufficient to develop a general sense of main composition of the MNM. The results are relatively accurate for content of water, organic matter and carbonate. Here, it should however be noted that oxidation of polyvalent elements (e.g., Fe2+ to Fe3+) result in a weight increase (e.g., FeO to Fe2O3) and may need to be accommodated in the analysis. While the drying oven and laboratory furnace method for determination of water content and LOI is not the primary technique for structure determination, it may play an important role in pre-evaluating materials prior to other material characterization techniques. It can be used as a part of the physico-chemical characterization of MNMs required as prior knowledge for toxicological testing and environmental compatibility assessment. If materials are not stored at similar relative humidity conditions, important differences (up to ca. 20 wt% for e.g., ZnO and a HNO3 stabilized TiO2) can be observed in weight as recently shown by Xxxxx et al. (2015). Such differences cause errors in the comparative dose measures when dosing is based on weighing. The temperature over which volatilization, decomposition or combustion occurs provides information about the volatilized/decomposed/oxidized species and this helps in the qualitative identification and quantitative characterization of these species. If high precision is needed, or if MNM is in short supply, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) is recommended. LOI is often used as an estimate of the content of non-volatile organic matter in the sample by the weight of the annealing residue. However, it should be noted that inorganic substances or ...
Principles and scope. WDXRF is a technique that measures the elemental composition in a controlled atmosphere. Its main use is to characterize materials in regards to their composition; in particular, the relative abundance of elements in the bulk. Measurements can be run automated and a large number of samples can be analyzed in a short amount of time. The measurement duration normally varies from ca. 1 minute to 18 minutes depending on the sample type and detection limits required. Sample preparation is usually simple; in many cases, material can be observed directly. WDXRF instruments rely on diffractive optics to give them high spectral resolution. WDXRF instruments use a x-ray tube source to directly excite the sample. Wavelength-dispersive spectrometers employ diffraction by a single crystal to separate characteristic wavelengths emitted by the sample. A single crystal of known interplanar spacing d is used to disperse the collimated polychromatic beam of characteristics wavelengths that is coming from the sample, such that each wavelength λ will diffract at a specific angle θ, given by Xxxxxx law: nλ = 2d·sinθ where n is an integer number denoting the order of the diffracted radiation. A goniometer is used to maintain the required θ/2θ relationship between sample and crystal/detector. A diffraction device, usually a crystal or multilayer, is positioned to diffract x-rays from the sample toward the detector. Diffracted wavelengths are those that satisfy the Xxxxxx equation. Other wavelengths are scattered very inefficiently. Collimators are normally used to limit the angular spread of x-rays, to further improve the effective resolution of the WDXRF system. For the detection of light elements a proportional counter and for the heavier elements a scintillation counter is used. Both detectors are perfectly suited to the respective energy ranges. All the components can be fixed to form a fixed single WDX channel that is ideal for analyzing a single element. One element after another may be measured in sequence. An instrument consists of a loader for subsequent analysis of up to 60 samples. Samples can be either liquid or solid, pressed in pellets, fused to beads or loose powders. The detector purge gas is typically P10 gas (10 % methane, 90 % Ar). Analysis takes place under vacuum or a protective He-atmosphere. The He should be of High-purity (99.999 vol%,
Principles and scope. The intention with this protocol is to provide a validated method for identification of organic substances which can be extracted from MNM and analyzed with MS. More specifically said this is a protocol that describes procedures to obtain information on the identity of organic compounds which can be extracted from MNM, which in turn has been shown to be associated with organic substances by TGA. It is up to an assessment whether the extracted organic substances can be assumed to be intentional added to form a non-covalent surface coating. The amount of the organic compounds associated with the MNM is determined by TGA. The method is not suitable for covalently bound surface coating of MNM. This may require chemical decoupling of the attached surface modification. TGA is used to determine whether an MNM has organic coating or not and quantify the amount of coating. The following types of MNM with more than 1 % apparent coating were tested with the protocol: Organoclays, graphite, synthetic amorphous silica, titanium dioxide, silver, calcium carbonate, iron oxide, and nickel-zinc-iron oxide. The MNM are extracted with either ultrasonic extraction with suitable solvent at ambient temperature, pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) using methanol at 200 °C, or thermal desorption (TD) at 250 °C. Volatile organic compounds in the extracts are analysed with MS combined with on-column gas chromatography (GC-MS) or TD. Non-volatile and polar organic compounds in the extracts are analysed with liquid chromatography (LC-MS) or direct infusion combined with quadruple time- of-flight MS using either electrospray ionization or atmospheric pressure chemical ionization. Tandem MS based on collision induced dissociation is used for structure determination. Matrix- or nanostructured surface-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight MS (MALDI-TOF- MS or NALDI-TOF-MS) is used for characterization of polymeric compounds. The identification of the organic compounds from the MALDI/NALDI-TOF-MS results is based on pattern recognition, literature, and GC-MS data. The method can be used as a part of the characterization of MNM for chemical and industrial use and for toxicological testing. Other methods such as electron microscopy and x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy are important for the full characterization of MNM.
Principles and scope. The intention with this protocol is to provide a validated method for qualitative and quantitative estimation of inorganic coatings on the surface of MNMs. This can be obtained both by qualitatively (TEM/STEM) imaging where the nature of the coating on the surface of the MNM can be identified, as well as quantitatively wherein analytical-TEM (EDS, EELS) can be employed to enable quantification of the coating species/substance. Thus in the case of the coatings depending on the Z (atomic number) of the species that can coat the MNM, employing HAADF-STEM imaging technique within STEM, it can be observed that since Intensity I α Z2 in this technique, the species that coats the MNM can be identified (If Z of the coating ≠ Z of the MNMs). Hence depending on the variation in the atomic number of the MNM and the corresponding species that coats the material the two species can be differentiated by imaging. Subsequently by employing Energy Dispersive X-ray Analysis (EDS)/Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (EELS) quantification can be obtained for the species that coats the MNM. TEM remains an important characterization technique in the perspective of NM characterization. Other imaging techniques such as Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) are possible alternatives with each of their complementary strengths and weaknesses. The regulatory definition of manufactured nanomaterials (MN) according to the EC definition says that a nanomaterial is solid particulate compound where at least 50% of the particle number is between 1 and 100 nm along at least one dimension, but it is agreed that such particlulate MN are minute pieces of matter with defined physical boundaries. In aggregates and agglomerates they are referred to as primary particles. The physical and chemical properties of a NM can be different from the properties of the corresponding bulk material because of quantum and surface effects which are size dependent. The influence of a NM on an organism or cell depends on the characteristics of its aggregates or agglomerates as well as on the size of its primary particles. The size of aggregates and agglomerates but also their morphology and the charge, coating and reactivity of their surface were shown to influence their interactions with biological systems. Due to its high resolution and wide-spread use, TEM remains an important characterization technique in the perspective of NM characterization and supporting on e.g. the EC definiti...
Principles and scope. The intention with this protocol is to provide a validated method for quantitative estimation of oxygen containing functional groups covalently bound to the side-walls of CNT. More correctly it is a quantitative estimation of the CO, CO2, and H2O, that is released from CNT during heating in an inert atmosphere, and which contain the oxygen (O) bound in oxygen containing functional groups. Then from the released CO/CO2/H2O the total amount of O bound in oxygen containing functional groups can be calculated. The study of O containing surface functionalities of carbon material has mainly been performed on oxidized activated carbon and the method used termed temperature programmed desorption (TPD) (Xxxxxxxxxx et al., 1999; Xxxxxxxxx et al., 2002; Xxxxx et al., 2008). Figure 7 shows possible oxygen containing functional groups on a carbon surface and their decomposition by heating into CO/CO2. Dehydration may occur when e.g. adjacent carboxylic acid groups are exposed to heat. TGA is a technique that combines an oven and a balance. Heating the sample in a crucible in the oven the weight (loss) can be monitored as a function of temperature. Usually samples contain water which is desorbed at low temperatures but also organic compounds adsorbed to the surface of MNM may be desorbed during heating in the TGA thus resulting in weight loss of the sample. To be sure which weight loss is associated with release of CO/CO2/H2O a detector is required at the outlet of the TGA. In this SOP a method using a mass spectrometer as the detector is described. However, an infrared spectrometer (FTIR) could be used as well if the detection ability is sufficient.
