NanoSight

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Brigham Young University Selects NanoSight to Support Research in the Synthesis of Inorganic Nanoparticles

Salisbury, UK, 26th January 2010: The Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at Brigham Young University (BYU) has chosen the NanoSight LM10 system to support their research into the synthesis of inorganic nanoparticles, principally metal oxides.

The BYU research team of Dr. Brian Woodfield are working on the development of an elegantly simple process that allows the group to make a nearly unlimited array of well-defined inorganic nanoparticles that have controlled sizes from 1 nm to bulk. The particles are highly crystalline with well defined shapes (usually spherical but also rods). The method produces them with chemical and phase purities as high as 99.9999% while the particle size distribution is controlled to approximately ±10%. Dr. Woodfield projects with confidence that they can make industrial size quantities with manufacturing costs significantly less than any other current technique.

Principal user is PhD candidate Betsy Olsen. She has been very impressed with the instrument. “The NanoSight is used to measure particle size as one way to quantify the amount of agglomeration in the process and to see if our de-agglomeration/dispersion techniques are working.”

Olsen continued, “The system is used along side other techniques such as TEM and DLS. However, The NanoSight is much faster, less expensive and easier to run than TEM. It provides more control compared to DLS and other traditional particle size analyzers as it allows you to visualize what you are measuring particle by particle. For example, this means you can follow a polydispersed system more accurately.”

NanoSight’s approach, known as Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA), has been shown to be ideally suited to both research and process control use. The system is an extremely powerful nanoscale research and development tool for looking a broad range of particle types and concentrations.

To learn more about nanoparticle characterisation using NTA, please visit www.nanosight.com and register for the latest issue of NanoTrail, the company’s electronic newsletter.

The NanoSight users at Brigham Young University

About NanoSight
NanoSight Ltd, of Amesbury, UK, is the world leading provider of instruments for the optical detection and real time analysis of sub-micron particles. The Company supplies unique instruments for nanoparticle analysis in the sub-micron region that have specific application in virus particle detection and counting. These instruments go far beyond existing light scattering techniques in characterizing polydispersed systems. Founded in 2004, the company currently has approaching 200 systems in service worldwide, having begun commercial sales in 2006.

The Company’s proprietary knowledge and expertise has enabled the delivery of technologies to blue chip companies and universities for direct visualization of individual nanoscale particles in suspension from which independent quantitative estimation of particle size, size distribution and concentration are immediately obtained. The Company has recently launched additions to its advanced Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA) software that build on the ground-breaking work of NanoSight’s LM20 and LM10 systems.

The Company has a growing base of users worldwide, including BASF, GlaxoSmithKline, 3M Corp, BP, ICI, Roche & Unilever and many universities. For more information, visit NanoSight's website.

For further information
Please contact NanoSight direct or their marketing agency, NetDyaLog Limited: