Xigo Nanotools has come up with a solution to a problem you probably didn’t even know existed: measuring the surface area of nanoparticles.
Usually, people with PhDs using machines that cost around $250,000 conduct nanopartical measurements. The results take hours. Xigo wanted to change all that.
“We were interested in having a device that would cost less and be simple enough to use that it could be operated by someone without an advanced degree in a quality-control setting,” says Xigo Nanotools President and Founder Sean Race.
Hence, Xigo’s Acorn Area: a shoebox-sized device that measures the surface area and volume fraction of nanoparticles in ten or 15 minutes. It doesn’t require a PhD or sample preparation to operate, and it only costs $25,000.
Xigo has been developing Acorn Area for the past four years and is now preparing to send prototypes of the device to a handful of companies for testing and feedback. A $150,000 investment from Ben Franklin Technology Ventures is helping to fund prototype construction, the hiring of a researcher to run the beta testing, and 250 square feet of lab space at the BFTP incubator on the campus of Lehigh University. Race hopes to finish testing sometime in June and seek permanent funding to begin manufacturing the devices.
Particle analysis tools represent a $400 million market in research and development for a variety of industries such as electronics, paints and coating, electronic storage and pharmaceuticals. Since nanoparticles behave differently than ordinary materials, it’s necessary for companies to measure them so they’ll know whether or not the particles do what they are supposed to do.
The science involved is complex, but according to Race, companies don’t need to understand it completely; they just need to be able to use Acorn Area properly.
“It’s similar to an iPod,” he says. “You don’t necessarily know what the technology is, but you don’t need to know that to be able to use it; you don’t need to be able to know about NMR [nuclear magnetic resonance] to use the instrument to measure surface areas.”
Source: Sean Race, President & Founder of Xigo Nanotools
Writer: John Davidson
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