Trends in particle analysis
Intelligent, automated and with more shape!
Labour intensive techniques with limited automation have little, if any, place in modern industrial laboratories. Slick R&D, precise process control and fast, efficient QC are all essential to a company’s competitiveness. And the analytical techniques used must add value to the process. Certainly this is true for particle characterization. In many industries it has a critical role in determining the quality of raw materials and intermediates, and in assuring the integrity and fitness for purpose of the final product. Today, nanoparticle characterization and the increasing use of particle shape measurement present additional challenges for industry. The role of the instrument supplier is more important than ever before, with strong, knowledgeable applications support an essential component of any particle characterization solution. [More]
Time for action on nano safety research
“With over $32 billion worth of products incorporating nanotechnology sold in 2005, the question of whether nanotechnology products and applications are safe is one that is not going away.” This comment from David Rejeski, director of the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC, accompanied the publication in July this year of a new report Nanotechnology : A Research Strategy for Addressing Risk. The report’s author is Andrew Maynard, chief scientific advisor for the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies, and in it he calls for a comprehensive framework for systematically exploring nanotechnology’s possible risks. According to Dr Maynard’s analysis, as little as $11 million of the more than one billion dollars that the US government invests annually in nanotechnology research and development is devoted to highly relevant research into what is safe and what is not. [More]
Shaping up for improved product performance
Major advances in digital imaging technology have accelerated the development of fully automated, high-speed systems for the sensitive measurement of particle shape as well as particle size. Replacing laborious, unrepresentative and largely unworkable manual methods, these new systems are opening up a whole range of possibilities for improving product and process understanding and control. [More]
