Malvern shows chemical imaging solutions for first time at AAPS

Malvern Instruments' recent acquisition of Spectral Dimensions Inc. has added powerful NIR (near infrared) chemical imaging systems to the Malvern portfolio. The NIR-CI 2450 from this range will be on show at the 2006 AAPS Annual Meeting and Exposition (29 Oct – 2 Nov 06; San Antonio, TX, USA).

The NIR-CI 2450, which incorporates the latest technology for chemical imaging, will be displayed alongside systems from Malvern’s extensive range of instruments and technologies for materials characterization. On the booth will be the laser diffraction-based Spraytec and Mastersizer 2000 particle size analyzers, the Morphologi G2 high sensitivity particle image analyzer for shape and size measurement, the Zetasizer Nano for characterizing nano-sized particles and molecules in solution, and the Gemini HR^nano rheometer.

An exciting new analytical approach, chemical imaging enables the identification and spatial localization of chemical species in a sample, producing a 'chemical map'. By combining traditional near infrared spectroscopy with microscopic and macroscopic imaging, a single rapid measurement enables analysts to obtain quantitative spatial and spectral information with unprecedented ease.

In the pharmaceutical industry chemical imaging of solid dosage forms is used increasingly to determine: sample content uniformity; domain size characteristics; distribution of components (blending); polymorph distribution; moisture content; location of contaminants; coating and layer thickness.