Shining example

It might look fine on the surface, but hidden inside a product's nanoscale nooks and crannies could be detrimental contaminants and aggregates.

Several methods have been used over the years to visualise and study product nanoparticles before they leave the manufacturing line but many of these techniques give only an average of particle size distributions in product samples — meaning some contaminants may get through undetected.

A UK company may have solved the problem with the development of an instrument for individually measuring and visualising all nanoparticles within a sample in suspension in real-time. The technology, from

, has already been used by a major international defence contractor for virus detection, and the Wiltshire company is in the process of expanding its services to a broad range of manufacturing industries.

The device can be used close to the point of manufacture, without the need for lengthy sample preparation procedures. A sample can be viewed and analysed from the production line by suspending and diluting its particles in water, for instance, and loading 0.5ml via syringe into the device.