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Description of Business | 12 Months Ended
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Dec. 31, 2018
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 a skin and sun care focused company that offers engineered materials, formulation development and commercial manufacturing with an integrated family of technologies. Our expertise in nanoscale engineering allows us to effectively coat and disperse particles on a nano and “non-nano“ scale for use in a variety of diverse markets: personal care ingredients, including sunscreens as active ingredients; full formulations of skin care products, marketed and sold by our wholly-owned subsidiary, Solesence, LLC (our “Solésence® subsidiary“), which comprise two of our three major product categories; and in architectural coatings, industrial coating applications, abrasion-resistant additives, plastics additives, medical diagnostics, energy (including solar control) and a variety of surface finishing technologies (polishing) applications, including optics — all of which fall in to the advanced materials product category. 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, and our Solésence® products to cosmetics and skin care brands. Recently developed technologies have made certain new products possible and opened potential new markets. During 2015 we were granted a patent on a new type of particle surface treatment (coating) — now called Active Stress Defense ™ Technology — which became the cornerstone of our new product development in personal care, with first revenue recognized during 2016. In addition, through the creation of our Solésence® subsidiary, we utilize this particle surface treatment to manufacture and sell fully developed solutions to targeted customers in the skin care industry, in addition to the ingredients we have traditionally sold in the personal care area. 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 the sale of our products.

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- Definition The entire disclosure for the nature of an entity's business, major products or services, principal markets including location, and the relative importance of its operations in each business and the basis for the determination, including but not limited to, assets, revenues, or earnings. For an entity that has not commenced principal operations, disclosures about the risks and uncertainties related to the activities in which the entity is currently engaged and an understanding of what those activities are being directed toward. + References Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/disclosureRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 275 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 1 -Subparagraph (a) -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=99393423&loc=d3e5967-108592 Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/disclosureRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 275 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/topic&trid=2134479 + Details
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