An Introduction to Chemical Imaging with Malvern Instruments

Chemical imaging is an exciting new analytical approach that enables the identification and spatial localization of chemical species in a sample. The functionality of many advanced materials (both man-made and natural) is based on the intricate interaction between sample components. Because changes in the spatial localization of components can result in materials with undesirable performance characteristics, the ability to chemically identify as well as locate these components is invaluable when it comes to sample understanding.

Malvern Instruments’ Chemical Imaging product line delivers spatial and chemical information. Coupled with ISys data analysis software, this provides answers to the questions ‘what?’, ‘how much?’, and ‘where?’.

Chemical imaging has found many uses in the pharmaceutical industry, polymer sciences, material sciences, forensics and pathology, as well as industrial quality and process control.

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

An understanding of these characteristics enables: the manufacture of products with superior performance; identification of the critical characteristics that affect product manufacturability and scale-up; forensic examination of bad lots or failing batches of final product; identification of counterfeit products.

For more information visit the article webpage.