Jan Köhl, your customer adviser for the north of Germany and Scandinavia, introduces himself.

Dear KRÜSS customers,

As the new customer adviser for North Germany and Scandinavia, I would very much like to introduce myself. My name is Jan Köhl.

I have been working for KRÜSS since the beginning of 2010 and am now able to bring my specialist knowledge to bear in the contact with our customers. As a graduate economist in chemistry and trained chemical laboratory technician with practical experience in chemical analysis, I am familiar with the scientific and economic demands which users place on measuring equipment.

Following extensive training on the units in the KRÜSS product range, I am now at your disposal to give advice on products and on all technical and natural scientific matters relating to the chemistry of interfacial tension. I will also be presenting the latest products from KRÜSS in our seminars and at exhibitions - or to you personally at your own premises.

You can request a visit or other information using our customer form - or you can contact me directly by telephone or email.

In this spirit, I look forward to a good working relationship and perhaps getting to know you personally in the near future.

Your Jan Köhl

In autumn 2010 KRÜSS was present for you at four exhibitions and conventions. The sense of optimism following the crisis year of 2009 was clearly noticeable.

K exhibition in Düsseldorf

The follow-up report published as a video on the website of K, the world's largest rubber and plastics exhibition, speaks of the sense of optimism following a difficult previous year - an optimism which is justified by the large number of visitors and contracts signed. The exhibition was also a major success for KRÜSS, thanks to a number of promising international contacts. Most visitors to the stand were interested in wetting measurement. Not infrequently, questions were asked related to replacing the test ink method in quality assurance in the medium term by mobile or stationary contact angle measurements, which are able to characterize the surface energy and the disperse and polar interactions at the surface.

Parts2Clean in Stuttgart

"It is a feature of parts2clean that discussions very quickly go into problems and tasks in very great depth". The KRÜSS exhibition team can confirm this summing-up by an exhibitor in the follow-up report on the website of the leading trade fair for cleaning processes: customers were wanting to discuss very specific questions on the exhibition stand. Enquiries were often directed towards the possibilities for checking the success of cleaning based on contact angle measurements - a subject which also formed the focus of the paper by Dr. Thomas Skrivanek: In-line process control and quantitative analysis of surface treatment processes by means of contact angle measurements.
[Download KRÜSS presentation (German) as PDF]

SEPAWA in Fulda

The organisers of the 57th SEPAWA Congress in Fulda are talking of a "new record" for the number of visitors and exhibitors. At the annual forum of the professional association for the cleaning agent and detergent industry, cosmetics, perfumery and formulators, KRÜSS was able to cultivate the relationship with existing customers and win new ones. Dr. Tobias Winkler was delighted with the intense interest in his lecture on Foamability and Foam Stability of Surfactant Solutions (see application report in the last issue of this newsletter). Many of the conference guests saw for themselves the versatility of the new DFA 100 foam analyser at the accompanying exhibition.
[Download KRÜSS presentation (German) as PDF]

DGK rheology workshop in Hamburg

Beiersdorf AG in Hamburg was the host of this year's rheology workshop of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Wissenschaftliche und Angewandte Kosmetik (DGK). KRÜSS colleagues Dr. Christine Bilke-Krause (Manager, Surface Science Center) and Dr. Tobias Winkler (Manager, Customer Support Lab) contributed to the high-class scientific programme with a paper on interfacial rheology and on the foaming and foam stability behaviour of skin oils and creams.
[Download KRÜSS presentation (German) as PDF]

The KRÜSS Surface Science Centre was established at the University of Bristol two years ago. Laboratory Supervisor Robert-John Dyer takes stock.

The KRÜSS Surface Science Centre (KSSC) in Bristol is a real success story. Founded two years ago with the cooperation of Prof. Julian Eastoe, it is today an important resource for the research community at the University of Bristol. As a local applications laboratory, it has become a base for KRÜSS to impart knowledge of interfacial science throughout Great Britain and Ireland, and to open up new areas of application.

To enable members of the university to exploit the full potential of KRÜSS' modern equipment, KRÜSS holds regular theoretical training courses and practical training sessions. After a successful first year, in which the courses were aimed predominantly at graduates and postgraduates of the School of Chemistry, they have also become a fixed part of the training programme of the Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) for functional nanomaterials. The latter is a new DTC facility within the university, which imparts knowledge of a wide range of analytical methods to budding research scientists.

Even before the seal was stamped on the partnership between the University of Bristol and KRÜSS, measurements with KRÜSS instruments had appeared in scientific papers. A long list of publications, starting with an article on UV-activated surfactants [10], was extended this year by a further contribution in Langmuir [1]. The study concerned a new class of 3-chain surfactants that are surface-active in water, oil and carbon dioxide. These universal surfactants promise improvements in the effectiveness and environmental compatibility of CO₂ extractions, in the use of CO₂ in tertiary crude oil production (see press release of the University of Bristol) and also in the separation and storage of CO₂ for reducing emissions (sequestration).

It is not only surfactant research that benefits from the KSSC - a large range of challenging tasks have been submitted to the centre by visitors from throughout Great Britain and Ireland. For example, the surfaces of tooth implants and nanocoatings have been investigated with the DSA100 contact angle measuring instrument. On top of this, the BP100 has been used to determine the dynamic surface tension of cleaning solutions, pressure-sensitive adhesives and carbonated beverages.

Articles published in Langmuir by Prof. Julian Eastoe et al with results obtained using KRÜSS instruments:

[1] Azmi Mohamed, Kieran Trickett, Swee Yee Chin, Stephen Cummings, Masanobu Sagisaka, Laura Hudson, Sandrine Nave, Robert Dyer, Sarah E. Rogers, Richard K. Heenan and Julian Eastoe:Universal Surfactant for Water, Oils, and CO2 / Langmuir, 2010, 26 (17), pp 13861–13866

[2] Alireza Salabat, Julian Eastoe, Ana Vesperinas, Rico F. Tabor, and Kevin J. Mutch : Photorecovery of Nanoparticles from an Organic Solvent / Langmuir, 2008, 24 (5), pp 1829–1832

[3] Caroline Seguin, Julian Eastoe, Sarah Rogers, Martin Hollamby, and Robert M. Dalgliesh: Unexpected Adsorption Behavior of Nonionic Surfactants from Glycol Solvents / Langmuir, 2006, 22 (26), pp 11187–11192

[4] Richard F. Tabor, Sarah Gold, and Julian Eastoe: Electron Density Matching as a Guide to Surfactant Design / Langmuir, 2006, 22 (3), pp 963–968

[5] Audrey Dupont, Julian Eastoe, and Laura Martin, David C. Steytler, Richard K. Heenan, Frederic Guittard and Elisabeth Taffin de Givenchy: Hybrid Fluorocarbon−Hydrocarbon CO2-philic Surfactants. 2. Formation and Properties of Water-in-CO2 Microemulsions / Langmuir, 2004, 20 (23), pp 9960–9967

[6] Gary R. Burnett, Rob Atkin, Stuart Hicks, and Julian Eastoe : Surfactant-Free “Emulsions” Generated by Freeze−Thaw / Langmuir, 2004, 20 (14), pp 5673–5678

[7] Julian Eastoe, Margarita Sanchez Dominguez, Hannah Cumber, and Paul Wyatt, Richard K. Heenan : Light-Sensitive Microemulsions / Langmuir, 2004, 20 (4), pp 1120–1125

[8] Julian Eastoe, Margarita Sanchez-Dominguez, Hannah Cumber, Gary Burnett, and Paul Wyatt, Richard K. Heenan : Photoresponsive Microemulsions / Langmuir, 2003, 19 (17), pp 6579–6581

[9] Ali Bumajdad, Julian Eastoe and Sandrine Nave, David C. Steytler, Richard K. Heenan, Isabelle Grillo: Compositions of Mixed Surfactant Layers in Microemulsions Determined by Small-Angle Neutron Scattering / Langmuir, 2003, 19 (7), pp 2560–2567

[10] Julian Eastoe, Margarita Sanchez Dominguez, and Paul Wyatt, Andrew Beeby, Richard K. Heenan: Properties of a Stilbene-Containing Gemini Photosurfactant: Light-Triggered Changes in Surface Tension and Aggregation / Langmuir, 2002, 18 (21), pp 7837–7844

[11] Sandrine Nave, Alison Paul, and Julian Eastoe, Alan R. Pitt, Richard K. Heenan: What Is So Special about Aerosol-OT? Part III Glutaconate versus Sulfosuccinate Headgroups and Oil−Water Interfacial Tensions / Langmuir, 2002, 18 (5), pp 1505–1510

Following the relaunch of KRUSS.de, the laboratory trade magazine LABO has made the KRÜSS website the tip of the month for the second time.

"KRÜSS provides a comprehensive and informative website which is not only restricted to the product range, but also offers a wealth of background knowledge on the subject of interfacial chemistry." This is how the laboratory trade magazine LABO summed up the evaluation of the KRÜSS homepage in August 2010.

As after the first website in 2002, the LABO editorial staff have voted the KRÜSS web pages the accolade of "website of the month" following this year's relaunch. As well as the newsletter archive and the comprehensive information on the theory of the measuring methods offered by KRÜSS, the clarity and simple navigation were also praised.