Volume-12 (03/2006)

New Power in the KRUSS Application Team


Petra Längerich belongs to our application team in Hamburg since October 2005. In this edition of our newsletter she introduces herself:

Dear Sirs,

Already during my time at school, I was especially interested in natural sciences. After having passed my final exams at secondary school in 1987, I started apprenticeship as a chemical laboratory worker with KVP in Kiel, with the main focus of my work being quality control. After successful conclusion in 1990, I was attracted by the city at the river Elbe, Hamburg, where I could expand my professional skills in the quality control department of Asche AG.

During the more than 10 years in this company, I fulfilled a big variety of duties and responsibilities: from testing of raw materials according to the European Pharmacopoeia, via testing of drug products, to the use of established hi-tech-analyzing methods such as GC and HPLC. In addition, development and validation of new methods also were a part of my work.

Working with KRÜSS GMBH attracted me with the possibility of working off the beaten tracks, of having the opportunity to work with newest methods in surface science and even to assist in their development. Since October 2005, I strengthen the team of the application laboratory at KRÜSS GmbH.

Yours,

Petra Längerich


Measuring Instruments in Dubai - ArabLab 2006


Dubai, located at the shore of the Persian Gulf, is well known for its sensational development projects and its extraordinary wealth based on oil and gold trade. In the period of February 13 - 16, 2006, Dubai hosted the laboratory instruments exhibition ArabLab2006.

Excitement connects nations - at least at the exhibition centre there was absolutely no sign for east-west tensions. Actually it was just the opposite. The interest shown by engineers and scientists as well as by trading companys was even higher than in previous years. Besides visitors from Saudi Arabia and the United Arabian Emirates, visitors from Syria, Jordan and Iran showed most interest.The German group of exhibitors was by far the largest crowed of a single nation.

The guests at our Krüss exhibition booth showed most interest in the new family of contact angle instruments, named EasyDrop and specially in the first time ever public presentation of the tensiometer EasyDyne. Both instrument groups excel in their combination of simplicity in handling and professional accuracy.

And of course KRÜSS displayed some posters in Arabic language.




Drops under current - contact angles of liquid lenses by Varioptic


Varioptic has developed a novel liquid lens which allows focusing without movement along the opitical axis. Optical systems with less required space can be constructed, e.g. for cameras in cell phones.

The liquid lenses are bases on the phenomenon of electrowetting. Two immiscible liquids - a non-conductive oil and a conductive aqueous solution - are brought into contact with a non-conductive and hydrophobic coating. This insulating coating also separates two electrodes one of which is in contact with the aqueous solution. The phenomenon of electrowetting leads to a different curvature of the drop of the non-conductive liquid depending on the voltage applied. This effect is detectable as a change of the contact angle.

http://www.varioptic.com/res/downloads/NE051024_129-135_eng.pdf

Source
Source: “No Moving Parts, Liquid Lens Capability Realization Soon for Mass Production”, Bruno Berge, Varioptic

 


The characterization of liquids and coatings is accomplished using a KRÜSS Drop Shape Analysis System. The liquid characterization is made measuring surface tension, interfacial tension and contact angle of oil in water on the hydrophobic layer. Moreover, the hydrophobic layer is characterized by surface energy measurements revealing the polar and dispersive components. Electrowetting curves are obtained measuring contact angle of oil in water versus the applied voltage.

KRÜSS Contact Angle Measuring System DSA100
KRÜSS Contact Angle Measuring System DSA100