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• Surfactant manufacturers
• Surfactant formulators
• Print & ink manufacturers
• Kibron CMCeeker
• » Critical micelle concentration
• » CMCeeker vs. conventional methods
• » Cost saving calculation
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• Kibron DyneScan
• From R&D to process control

One of the key tasks in the optimization of a variety of formulations is to have the right content of constituents such as surfactants and polymers, further interacting to control the surface tension related properties of the product. A sensitive method to characterize the surfactant amphiphile/polymer interactions is the surface activity profile, involving determination of the critical micelle concentration (CMC) for the mixture.

To design the best formulation requires a great number of tests (varying e.g. the composition, salts, pH), which until now has not been feasible on an industrial scale, due to the costly and labor intensive conventional methods available. Due to changing customer needs and because of the requirement for more environment-friendly products, yielding greener footprint, the development of new and improved formulations has to be harbored as a continuous process.

The Kibron CMCeeker, with the Delta-8 surface tension plate reader is the only surface tension measurement system, which can be fully automated. It makes, for the first time, surface activity screening and CMC measurements a practical utility for modern industrial R&D, thus revolutionizing the speed and cost-efficiency of the development process. As a result, the time-to-market is significantly shorter. Detailed description of an automated screening system was presented by Tucker et al. (Dow US, Fabric & Surface Care) at CESIO 2008 in Paris. The Delta-8 has also been integrated with the Eppendorf epMotion 5075 liquid handling platform (www.labnews.co.uk/feature_archive.php/1816/5/handle-with-care) as well as those by Beckman and Hamilton.

Automation - saving time and money:

• CMC determination is more than 100 times faster compared to the existing methods, yielding CMC values for 8 compounds in only a few minutes
• simultaneous equilibration of 96 samples
• use of disposable 96-well Dyneplates, eliminating contamination risk
• automatic probe cleaning after each measurement cycle
• full control by an easy-to-use and intuitive software
• integration with robotic liquid handling systems (from e.g Hamilton, Eppendorf, Beckman)allows fully automated, unattended operation.

Example:

With the Kibron CMCeeker, 100 CMC determinations (12 data points/one CMC determination) can be measured in only 2 hrs. With conventional methods the time required (12 data points / one CMC determination à 15 min/measurement) would be approx. 300 hours, corresponding to 7,5 full working weeks.

Low sample consumption

Surfactants are, nearly without exception, the most expensive ingredient in a range of formulations. The minimal sample volumes (50 microliters/data point) needed in CMC-determination by CMCeeker brings R & D labs significant savings in material expenditure.

Example:

With the Kibron CMCeeker, 100 CMC determinations requires a total sample volume of only 60 milliliters. With conventional methods the respective total liquid volume would be more than 12 liters.