Description of Business

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2015

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Description of Business

(1) Description of Business

Nanophase Technologies Corporation (“Nanophase”, “Company”, “we”, “our”, or “us”) is an advanced materials and applications developer and commercial manufacturer with an integrated family of nanomaterial and related technologies. We produce engineered nano and larger, sub-micron, materials for use in a variety of diverse markets: personal care including sunscreens, architectural coatings, industrial coating applications, abrasion-resistant additives, plastics additives, medical diagnostics, energy, and a variety of surface finishing technologies (polishing) applications. We target markets in which we believe practical solutions may be found using our products. We work closely with current and potential customers in these target markets to identify their material and performance requirements and market our materials to various end-use applications manufacturers. Recently developed technologies have made certain new products possible and opened potential new markets. We recently developed new material solutions in the surface finishing technologies (polishing) and energy-management areas that have been taken to potential customers, and for which we are experiencing early-stage, accelerating revenue growth. We also developed a new coating which we used to launch new products in personal care, beginning in 2015. Although our primary strategic focus has been the North American market, we currently sell material to customers overseas and have been working to expand our reach within foreign markets. The Company was incorporated in Illinois on November 25, 1989, and became a Delaware corporation during November 1997. Our common stock trades on the OTCQB marketplace under the symbol NANX.

While product sales comprise the majority of our revenue, we also recognize revenue from other sources from time to time. These activities are not expected to drive the long-term growth of the business. For this reason, we classify such revenue as “other revenue” in our Statements of Operations, as it does not represent revenue directly from our nanocrystalline materials.