Set of services to Determine physicochemical properties Understand the materials and their surface Estimate the feasibility of a project Improve your developments

Measurements of materials interaction abilities

Why is IGC useful and relevant?The interaction abilities between materials are of great interest in many industrial applications to understand, master and predict phenomena such as dispersion, caking, adhesion, destabilization or even hydrophilic-hydrophobic and acid-base properties.

Indeed, small modifications at the surface of a material can impact its interaction potential and thus have a significant effect on its properties and performances. The surface chemical com-position and the surface morphology are usually determined through several analytical methods. However, these data do not describe how far the interaction abilities are modified.

Our services and know-how in the Inverse Chromatography (Gas and Liquid) provide you information about these interactions at the mole-cular scale. The injection of chosen and known molecules acting as probes leads to chromato-grams on which the measured retention times, as well as the shape of the obtained peaks, are related to the interactions occurring between the molecular probes and the investigated solid (stationary phase). Hence, numerous physico-chemical features of the analyzed material are available.

Applications and uses

Provided services

Benefits

Intended for the Research departments (fundamental and applied) Quality control departments

To analyse Organic, mineral and hybrid materials

In the form of Powders Mineral oxides: silica, calcium carbonate, alumina, iron oxides, titanium dioxide Pharmaceutical powders: API, excipients Mineral fillers Carbons: carbon black, graphite, SiC Catalysts: Ceria, Zeolite, Lindlar Fibres Carbon, glass, silica, cotton, polyester, polyamide, nanofibers… Sheets Stainless steel, copper, aluminum, elastomers, glass… Films Liquids

And thus allow the determination of the Surface energy Nanoroughness Acid-base character Glass transition temperature Hansen Solubility Parameters Diffusion coefficient Adsorption isotherms Specific surface Surface heterogeneity

In order to Compare batches Carry out benchmarks Monitor the stability Evaluate the impact of a surface treatment (chemical, thermal, coating) Tune a formulation

For industry segments such as Pharmaceuticals: API and excipients Fine chemicals Bioproduction Textile and paper Materials Energetic materials

All the services focus on the customer and are performed in an interactive way, in order to understand the needs, target the requirements and suggest the best appropriated answer.

Adscientis meets the demand through its reactivity and tailored provided services: in the short term: one-time analyses for characterization and quality control in the medium term: R&D projects to understand, control and improve the solids’ properties.

Better understanding of interactions variation phenomenaThe interaction abilities are observed at the molecular scale with a large choice of molecular probes.

Better productivity for the concerned materialsA good knowledge of the interactions occurring at the solids’ surface leads to higher performance products.

Better quality and control of the productsMastering the surface’s behaviour is a real added-value that helps you improving your products and the resultant applications.

Customer and user satisfaction Adscientis delivers for each analysis a written and detailed report with expert’s interpretations of the results. These interpretations can also be discussed further orally if required.

Economic, energetic, environment impactFew sample, probes and solvent amounts are needed for IGC determinations (compared to static methods, only some mg or some g are required).

Some examples of applicationThe Inverse Chromatography techniques are powerful analytical tools providing you an increased competi-tiveness in the materials characterization and the resultant applications.

IGC-Infinite Dilution on solids:Surface energy determination

The determination of the dispersive component of the surface energy γd

s is definitely the best known application of the IGC-ID measurements.The modification of the surface energy can highlight impacts of the ageing, differences between treatedand non-treated surfaces or even significant va-riations between different providers or different batches as shown in the figure below.

IGC-Infinite Dilution on liquids:HSP determination

The Hansen Solubility Parameters is a widely used method when developing new formulas of inks, paints, adhesives, cosmetics or pharmaceuticals: it enables to predict if one material will dissolve in another and form a solution. Indeed, each solvent, polymer or nanoparticle is characterized by three parameters related to the dispersion forces (δ

d), the

polar forces (δp) and the hydrogen bondings (δ

h):

these are the Hansen Solubility Parameters.The latter can be easily determined thanks to the IGC-ID method on liquids, oils and polymers with the following advantages: a fast analysis speed (more than 20 solvents can be tested within a day, repeatability tests included) and few amounts of the tested solvents and of the investigated material are needed (less than 100 mg).

44.1

42.243.6

45.244.4

50.7

44.3

52.8

47.1

30

35

40

45

50

55

60

P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 F1 F2 F3 F4

Lactose samples

Calcu

late

d CH

i

Experimental Chi

HSP results : = 17.8 = 0.2 = 2.9R2 = 0.963

-0.50 0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00

-0.50

0.00

0.50

1.00

1.50

2.00

Here, several lactose samples are compared. It appears that a higher variability of the surface energy is observed for the P samples than for the F ones.

IGC-Finite Concentration:Stability follow-upThe IGC-FC method enables the determination of Adsorption Energy Distribution Functions (AEDF) that describe the surface energetic heterogeneity. Hence, it is possible to detect and follow small sur-face changes and to understand or prevent asso-ciated application problems.

ILC: Desorption isotherms interpretation

The Inverse Liquid Chromatography is performed when a liquid is used as carrier phase. This tech-nique offers a dynamic way to study the adsorption of probe molecules such as low molecular weight molecules, macromolecules or even surfactants. The obtained information are typically desorption isotherms.

Site

[ m

ole

(kJ/

mol

)]

Adsorption Energy [kJ/mol]

10 20 30 40 50

0.00

0.03

0.06

0.09

0.12

Initial

Aged

Qad

s [m

g/g]

Concentration [g/L]

0 0.02 0.06 0.100.04 0.08 0.12 0.14

0.00

0.03

0.06

0.09

0.12

Langmuir FT

Additive

In the shown example, the AEDF obtained for isopropanol on initial and aged silica samples are compared. The ageing has led to surface chemistry changes and thus to surface energe-tic heterogeneities.

Here, the adsorption of the additive on calcium carbonate in water is well fitted by the Lang-muir isotherm model through a lot of experi-mental points.

The previous figure depicts a good correlation when computing the HSP on sesame oil. This determination is quickly available and ensured by a high number of probe molecules.

All the expected information in a clear and detailed report Each service delivery ends with an analysis’ report that specifies the baseline data and the followed protocol, gives the results and their interpretations and summa-rizes the resultant conclusions.

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www.adscientis.comTél. : +33 3 89 48 00 42Fax : +33 3 89 48 09 63

Customers

Contact

Dr. Ralf DUMPELMANNTel: +41 62 873 13 11

Dr. Eric BRENDLETel: +33 3 89 48 00 42

For Germany, Austria and Switzerland:

EnquiriesShould you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us at contact@adscientis.com or visit our website at www.adscientis.com.

Customers’ feedback My personal opinion is that IGC is an important metho-dology for understanding things in my area of interest – Hansen Solubility Parameters. Unfortunately, there is a lot of bad IGC datasets out there, either using an unsuitable range of probes or doing the experiments without care-ful attention to the necessary details. Adscientis’ work is definitely in the rare high-quality category – its datasets are solid because a lot of intelligence goes into the plan-ning of the experiments and interpretation of the results.

Steven Abbott Director at Steven Abbott | Steven Abbott TCNF Ltd

We have worked with Adscientis to carry out the charac-terization of a new family of catalysts developed inhouse. Our main contact was M. BRENDLE who was very pro-fessional and helped us define our needs regarding the analytical work using the Inverse Chromatography. After we sent the samples, the first results were delivered in a timely manner through an exhaustive report that Eric went through with our team to explain and discuss the various aspects. I was very pleased with the work and our team obtained unique key data of the catalysts such as hydrophilic/hydrophobic character or acido-basicity.

Floryan Decampo R&D Horizon 3 Portfolio Manager

at Solvay Specialty Polymers | SOLVAY