When carrying out laser diffraction particle-size analysis using certain liquid dispersants, thermal artefacts can sometimes arise, causing data quality issues and requiring extended equilibration times. The Heat Management feature on the Mastersizer 3000+ eliminates these artefacts, resulting in greater confidence in results and faster equilibration.
When carrying out laser diffraction particle-size analysis using certain liquid dispersants, thermal artefacts can sometimes arise, causing data quality issues and requiring extended equilibration times. The Heat Management feature on the Mastersizer 3000+ eliminates these artefacts, resulting in greater confidence in results and faster equilibration.
The Mastersizer 3000 has been a workhorse for particle size analysts for well over a decade, and over that time has emerged as the most accurate and robust particle-sizing system available on the market. It is also compact, with the laser module, flowpath, sample chamber and detector all packed into a small space.
As the Mastersizer 3000 has become more widely adopted, some customers have reported thermal artefacts in their samples, and naturally we wanted to determine the cause.
After investigation, it seems that when using dispersants such as isopropanol, hexane and isooctane, mixing of the dispersant liquid at slightly different temperatures may occur in the dispersion cell. The resultant density differences can sometimes be sufficient to trigger Rayleigh–Taylor instabilities, producing temporary structures in the dispersant, which scatter light in the same manner as large particles.
As we expected, this issue only affected certain customers using particular dispersants. We also found that it can be avoided by extending the dispersant equilibration time. However, we wanted to ensure that all our customers – whichever dispersants they were using – were able to generate high-quality data quickly, and eliminate the time, effort and materials spent on troubleshooting. This inspired us to develop the Heat Management feature for the new Mastersizer 3000+.
Since its launch in 2012, the Mastersizer 3000 laser diffraction system has gained a well-deserved reputation as a high-performing, versatile and compact instrument for obtaining particle size distributions.
With applications including assessing powder flowability and packing, understanding drug dissolution rates, monitoring food emulsion stability, and ensuring optical performance of paints, Mastersizer 3000 has become a valuable tool throughout R&D and manufacturing. This success is down to both the hardware and the software: over the years, as well as numerous features and accessories, we’ve released two software modules that benefit all Malvern Panalytical instruments – Smart Manager for optimizing uptime and usage, and OmniTrust for ensuring regulatory compliance and data integrity.
The Mastersizer 3000+, launched in March 2024, continues this tradition, with three added software features, plus Heat Management, to enhance your particle-sizing capabilities and inform your critical decision-making:
Add to these features the instrument’s flexibility and ease of use, and the Mastersizer 3000+ truly becomes the top choice for particle sizing.
Click on the links above for more information on each of these features, or contact us to enquire about the Mastersizer 3000+.
In the Mastersizer 3000+, we’ve resolved the issue of thermal artefacts by making some small changes within the instrument to allow the dispersant to equilibrate quickly to the ambient temperature.
The success of this approach is demonstrated in Figure 1, which shows that on the Mastersizer 3000+, the optical signal for the dispersant isopropanol declines steadily, reaching equilibrium in just a few minutes, without any thermal fluctuations visible. This means that you could proceed with a sample measurement after a reasonably short equilibration time, without worrying about thermally-generated artefacts interfering with your measurement.
![[Figure 1 AN240314-mastersizer-heat-management.jpg] Figure 1 AN240314-mastersizer-heat-management.jpg](https://p3.aprimocdn.net/malvernpanalytical/7c8a3165-8357-4444-85c8-b11e00be61ae/Figure%201%20AN240314-mastersizer-heat-management_Original%20file.jpg)
Figure 1: The time dependence of the light background on the Mastersizer 3000+ for isopropanol dispersant, showing a smooth decline to equilibrium values. To ensure the data is representative of thermal artefact signals, the data is taken from channel 1. Data acquisition begins 20 s after the pouring of the dispersant liquid (pre-alignment delay).
Our initial assessment is that, in situations where thermal artefacts had previously been arising, Heat Management reduces the time spent on equilibration by up to 80% (Figure 2).
![[Figure 2 AN240314-mastersizer-heat-management.jpg] Figure 2 AN240314-mastersizer-heat-management.jpg](https://p3.aprimocdn.net/malvernpanalytical/2dfed867-0217-47d4-be8d-b11e00be62b1/Figure%202%20AN240314-mastersizer-heat-management_Original%20file.jpg)
Figure 2: Indication of the proportion of time that can be saved because of the Heat Management feature on Mastersizer 3000+.
It’s important to note that if you’re currently using Mastersizer 3000, then you can switch to the Mastersizer 3000+, safe in the knowledge that you won’t need to make any changes to your methods, and will see performance that is at least as good. And if you’re new to the Mastersizer range, then you can look forward to the high performance you’d expect from a Malvern Panalytical instrument, and have confidence in your measurements, whatever dispersants you’re working with.
By ensuring that the temperature of the sample is kept as near ambient as possible, the Heat Management feature on the Mastersizer 3000+ will help you to:
Working with troublesome dispersants? Talk to us today about Heat Management on the Mastersizer 3000+.
