Confocal Raman Microscopy – distribution of chemical components

Purpose

Do you want to know how your product looks like an a micrometer scale? How your different ingredients are distributed? Which compound is actually stabilizing the oil droplets in your formulation? Need to know if the active ingredient is evenly distributed in the tablet which is mainly composed of a filler? Or do you need to know how many layers the graphene you want to use has? Wondering about disulfide bridges in your protein?

CRM is a highly flexible spectroscopic method that enables the characterization of a wide range of materials, in most cases without any sample preparation at all. By means of CRM, you cannot only measure the distribution of components but also detect and follow changes in the chemical structure, wanted or unwanted. All this in a non-destructive way.

Are you experiencing batch-to-batch variations your standard analysis methods can’t explain? CRM is often the technique that gives answers where other, more common analysis techniques reach their limits.

Method

RISE owns a Witec Alpha 300 RAS with two differet laser wavelengths for excitation. The sample interacts with the well defined wavelength of the laser and the induced change can be analyzed and connected to molecular groups – and build up a so-called raman spectrum. The equipment can measure these spectra for very small and well-defined volumes (350*350*500nm). Thanks to a well-controlled movement of the sample one can measure thousands of spectra at known locations – and thus build a chemical map of the sample.

 All this can be performed at standard atmosphere, no vacuum or inert gas required. Thus, samples can usually be analyzed close to or at their intended application environment.

In contrast to FT-IR, CRM is not sensitive to water but can, in strong contrast to FT-IR, measure submersed in water or map the distribution of water.

Deliveries

Delivery of raw data or processed data along with a technical report according to agreement with customer.