At 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on July 20, 2012, the offering period of the rights offering previously disclosed by Nanophase Technologies Corporation (the "Company") expired. On July 24, 2012, the Company announced that the rights offering was fully subscribed and that stockholders exercising their basic and over-subscription rights purchased a total of 7,250,000 shares of the Company's common stock, which was the maximum number of shares offered in the rights offering, at a price of $0.33 per full share. Total gross proceeds to the Company from the rights offering will be approximately $2.4 million. Subscription rights that were not exercised by 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on July 20, 2012 have expired.

The Company received stockholder requests under the basic and oversubscription rights for approximately 11.7 million shares. Because oversubscription requests were limited by the number of available shares allocated on a pro rata basis as described in the prospectus, some of the oversubscription requests could not be fully satisfied. Of the 8.7 million shares requested by stockholders under their oversubscription rights, only 4.3 million shares were available for issuance. Excess payments will be refunded to participating stockholders by the subscription agent as promptly as practicable.

A copy of the press release announcing the results of the rights offering is attached hereto as Exhibit 99.1 and is incorporated herein by reference.