02 9541 3500Material and Particle characterisation Workshop 2014 – Sydney
12 Aug – 14 Aug 2014
ATA Scientific hosted a three day workshop which started from Tuesday 12th August and continued until Thursday 14th August. The event was well attended by a consistent stream of people from a wide range of scientific disciplines including members of Materials Australia and the Australian Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis (ACMM). The workshop was designed to enable scientists and their colleagues a unique opportunity to compare a range of different analytical techniques all in one location. A series of demonstrations together with valuable “hands-on” time to experience the instruments provided attendees with new insights into the wealth of informational now available. Four different instruments were setup for demonstration. These were focused in the area of particle imaging and particle characterisation. The instruments on show for test drive included :
- Phenom Desktop Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) for high resolution imaging with X-ray analysis (EDS) for element identification. This desktop SEM eliminates the expense, delay (images within 30sec) and complexity associated with operating a traditional SEM.
- Malvern Nanosight used to visualise and measure nanoparticle size and concentration, while a fluorescence mode provides differentiation of labelled or naturally fluorescing particles.
- Malvern Morphologi G3 for automated particle imaging with optional Raman probe for chemical identification.
- Malvern Zetasizer to determine nanoparticle size, zetapotential, molecular weight and aggregation behaviour.
Plus the new SEEC slides from Nanolane that enable nanoscale imaging using a regular light microscope!
The event was delivered in a relaxed atmosphere with each instrument available for viewing throughout the three days. Attendees were welcomed to explore the technologies on show and invited to bring in samples for analysis using these systems. A wide range of samples including gold nanoparticles, pharmaceutical powders, polymer samples, filter membranes and even stem cells, to name a few, were analysed during the week and results were provided instantly. Having spoken to many attendees throughout the workshop it was clear they were fascinated and impressed with the speed and quality of data obtained by these systems.
Overall the event successfully demonstrated the capabilities of these systems. It helped to expose the true power of these technologies which couple innovative engineering with intelligent software to help drive them.
We plan to rerun this workshop event in Melbourne from 29 – 31 Oct 2014. For more information or to register visit our events page.