As the modern world continues to embrace electrification, lithium-ion batteries are becoming increasingly important. Building better batteries, more efficiently, would lower costs and help move us towards a battery-powered future. A recent development in this field is the application of continuous mixing of battery electrode slurries, which holds several advantages over the more common traditional method of batch mixing. If you can start with a better slurry, you can build a better battery. Electrode slurry preparation To understand how twin-screw extrusion improves the electrode slurry prepar ..read more

Fast and precise SEM failure analysis Whether researchers work to perform plastic failure analysis or monitor microplastic pollution, they need a fast and precise way to analyze their samples. The Thermo Scientific Phenom ProX Desktop Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) meets this need, offering a quick and flexible tool for examining diverse plastic samples with minimal sample preparation. One research laboratory that’s using the Phenom ProX Desktop SEM is the Materials and Failure Analysis Department of Kunstoff-Institute Lüdenscheid based in Germany. The laboratory completes more than 1,000 ..read more

Atomic-scale high-resolution TEM As scientists in industry and academia increasingly require sub-nanometer information to better understand new materials’ properties, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has developed to deliver spatial and chemical information at the nanoscale in a wide variety of fields such as catalysis, metals, batteries, and polymers as well as novel materials to accelerate development of next-gen technology. Researches want high-resolution TEM to produce the highest quality images and most detailed information with the least amount of effort. Cold field-emission electr ..read more

Dr. Michael Bradley, Product Manager for FT-IR Products, discusses the multiple dimensions of polymer analyses, how to integrate those analyses, and then produce a report using several technologies within molecular spectroscopy. The various modes of analysis that will be discussed include: Near-Infrared (NIR)             – Common in industrial applications             – Deeply penetrating light Mid-IR             – Most common type of molecular spectroscopy             ..read more

Gemstone mining, and subsequent treatment methods, are frequent topics in Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Advancing Mining blog. But did you know that gemstones may be treated with polymers to fill surface-reaching cracks? The identification of treated gemstones is a major challenge; such treatments may be indistinguishable without skilled examination using Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR)  or Raman spectroscopy. An Introduction to Gem Treatments is an article on the GIA website that describes fracture or cavity filling as, “Filling surface-reaching fractures or cavities with a g ..read more

A major olefin producer investigated the comparative benefits of Gas Chromatography (GC) and Mass Spectrometry by carrying out a head-to-head evaluation of the analysis methods.  A single mass spectrometer with a 32-port rapid multi-stream sampler (RMS) was compared against a process GC configured with two analytical ovens (see figure below). 12 furnaces were connected but only six were chosen for the evaluation based on their planned availability. The GC analysis time was three minutes for limited component analysis, resulting in a total cycle time of nine minutes. The mass spectrometer ..read more

Ethylene (IUPAC name: ethene) is the simplest olefin, or alkene, with the chemical formula C2H4. Olefin fiber is a synthetic fiber made from a polyolefin, such as polypropylene or polyethylene.  Ethylene production takes place in an olefin furnace which is also used to produce other hydrocarbons in the olefin family, typically propylene (C3H6) and butadiene (C4H6).  It is used in wallpaper, carpeting, ropes, and vehicle interiors. The hydrocarbon feed is pyrolized, or ‘cracked,’ with steam at a high temperature, between 750°C to 900°C (1382°F and 1652°F), and high pressure, betw ..read more

Plastic is a leading material in the production and packaging of intermediate and finished goods. Few industries do not use plastics in their products, while consumers encounter plastics every day in the form of packaging, building/construction, transportation vehicles, medical equipment, scientific instruments, institutional products, furniture and furnishings, electronics, and apparel. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency states that “in 2013, the United States generated about 14 million tons of plastics as containers and packaging, about 12 million tons as durable goods such as applianc ..read more

We are beginning a new year, so let’s get back to the beginning basics of FTIR. FTIR stands for Fourier transform infrared, the preferred method of infrared spectroscopy. When IR radiation is passed through a sample, some radiation is absorbed by the sample and some passes through (is transmitted). The resulting signal at the detector is a spectrum representing a molecular ‘fingerprint’ of the sample. The usefulness of infrared spectroscopy arises because different chemical structures (molecules) produce different spectral fingerprints. FTIR is a common technique in the polymers and plastics i ..read more

For a comprehensive understanding of a material, usually more than just one analytical technique is required. Techniques complementing rheological measurements are e.g. GPC, thermal analysis, microscopy, and FTIR spectroscopy. By combining two analytical techniques in one instrument the amount of information gathered from one single sample is maximized. Specifically, can you introduce dynamic rheometry and FTIR spectroscopy to be employed simultaneously to monitor structure development during the reactive processing of a polyurethane resin system? It is certainly intuitive that rheological pro ..read more