QCM - Quartz Crystal Microbalance
QCM in a nutshell
Category:
physical characterization and thickness/mass of films
Information about:
in-situ measurement of mass, stiffness and viscoelastic properties of thin films on solid surfaces in liquid media based on QCM with damping/dissipation observation (DQCM)
Additional information:
kinetically measurements, real time insights, molecular interactions, biofilms, liquid properties
Measurements on:
in-situ of any chemical and biological films in the range of nm-μm, e.g. cell cultures and response to treatments, adsorption and desorption kinetics
Experience level:
Proven instruments. Experience especially with biological materials and films
Service level:
dedicated laboratory available, instrument can be provided on demand including training
Application fields:
Alternatives:
Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) measures in-situ changes on liquid films with a very high sensitivity, e.g. useful to measure adsorption processes of antibodies. SPR measures changes in the refraction index (RI). For "natural" objects like cells and bacteria the RI is not known and changes are purely arbitrary. QCM measures directly and absolute the mass and the relative viscoelastic properties of any film irrespective of changes in the IR.
Description in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QCM and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QCM-D
physical characterization and thickness/mass of films
Information about:
in-situ measurement of mass, stiffness and viscoelastic properties of thin films on solid surfaces in liquid media based on QCM with damping/dissipation observation (DQCM)
Additional information:
kinetically measurements, real time insights, molecular interactions, biofilms, liquid properties
Measurements on:
in-situ of any chemical and biological films in the range of nm-μm, e.g. cell cultures and response to treatments, adsorption and desorption kinetics
Experience level:
Proven instruments. Experience especially with biological materials and films
Service level:
dedicated laboratory available, instrument can be provided on demand including training
Application fields:
- Biology and Life Science: cell culture, biological films, response to treatments
- Chemicals: in-situ observation of chemical interactions with surfaces, e.g. corrosion inhibitors, cleaning processes, surfactants
Alternatives:
Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) measures in-situ changes on liquid films with a very high sensitivity, e.g. useful to measure adsorption processes of antibodies. SPR measures changes in the refraction index (RI). For "natural" objects like cells and bacteria the RI is not known and changes are purely arbitrary. QCM measures directly and absolute the mass and the relative viscoelastic properties of any film irrespective of changes in the IR.
Description in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QCM and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QCM-D
This is one of the methods that we can offer you to analyse your objects.
Contact us for further details or an offer for your case.