Applications of Spectradyne’s Technology
Why Spectradyne?
The Spectradyne nCS1TM and ARCTM are the only benchtop technology that provides high-resolution size distributions and accurate concentration measurements for particles in the 50 nm — 10 μm diameter size range. These instruments, using only electronic sensing, rapidly count and sizes individual nanoparticles in a sample, achieving few-percent precision in both size and concentration on par with CryoTEM. Spectradyne’s nCS1 and ARC deliver unprecedented capabilities for analyzing nanoparticles of any type, yielding more accurate and representative results than any other method. These instruments thus provide an orthogonal technique to optically-based microparticle analysis instruments, while also enabling high-resolution analysis of a variety of biological and industrial particles.
Read our overview of the technology, check out our specifications, as well as our comparative head-to-head comparison with other technologies.
Watch a video presentation that gives an overview of Spectradyne’s technology.
Dynamic light scattering (DLS) and nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) both use light scattering to monitor particle Brownian motion, which combined with estimates of solution viscosity can be used to provide an estimate of the hydrodynamic radius of particles. These indirect methods are appealing because they only require probing a sample with light, requiring very little sample preparation. However, these methods are in fact prone to large systematic errors and both DLS and NTA can generate particle size distributions that are quite misleading and incorrect. Resistive pulse sensing as used by Spectradyne’s nCS1 and ARC instead measure the individual diameters of each particle, so the particle size histograms provide quantitative, high resolution measurements of both particle diameter and absolute concentration.
There are in fact direct comparisons of DLS and NTA to the gold standard measurement of individual particles by electron microscopy (EM), with comparisons in the published literature showing that both DLS and NTA present “false peaks” in their reported distributions that do not match the EM results.
Read about our head-to-head comparison with other technologies, our overview of the technology, and read our specifications.
Polydisperse samples
A polydisperse particle mixture is one in which the constituent particles vary in size, shape, or molecular weight. The size distribution in such mixtures can be difficult to ascertain; bulk optical properties of the mixture, such as opacity, do not give detailed information about the population distribution. This is especially true as particle sizes decrease into the deep sub-micron range. Typical characterization instrumentation, such as dynamic light scattering (DLS) and optical particle tracking cannot resolve highly polydisperse mixtures of particles. Spectradyne’s nCS1 and ARC can.
Read about our polydispersity capabilities.
Contamination
How clean is your IV saline? How well does your sub-micron filter work? These are questions we asked and answered using the nCS1TM. We looked at nanoparticles in an IV saline bag, and compared the results to those found in an IV flushing syringe. We also looked at how effective a sub-micron filter is in removing a range of particles from a sample containing a broad distribution of ferromagnetic nanoparticles. Interested in finding out what we found?
Read about our fluid cleanliness study here.
Instruments
Choose the right instrument for your lab
MRPS + single-particle fluorescence phenotyping in one measurement.
- Up to 3 simultaneous optical channels
- Configurable excitation & emission
- GMP/GAMP & 21 CFR ready
- 50–10000 nm detection range
Fast and accurate nanoparticle size and concentration using MRPS.
- Real-time size & concentration
- 3 µL sample volume
- Results in minutes
- 50–10000 nm detection range
Purpose-built for industrial and research nanoparticle characterization.
- Proven MRPS platform
- Paints, inks, slurries & more
- Faster than DLS or NTA
- Absolute concentration output