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Development and production of calibration materials for XRF and ICP

tailor made polymer samples
Research in the field of direct solid analysis methods requires suitable polymeric standard materials. For more than 20 years, the IAKA working group has been intensively involved in the development of element-doped plastics for the calibration of LA-ICP-MS and XRF systems. Only with the help of suitable standards can matrix effects be clarified, correction models developed and correct calibrations produced.
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The IAKA working group is now one of the world's recognised laboratories for the production of standards for elemental doped plastics and was also represented on the IEC 62321 standardisation committee for the implementation of the RoHS Directive. For example, the commercially available RoHS (Restriction of Hazard Substances) reference materials BAM H001 - BAM H010 were produced and certified by BAM. Furthermore, the AK was part of a committee of European experts for the revision of the toy directive EN 71-3 ("Revision of EN 71-3, Safety of toys - Part 3: Migration of certain elements"). New standard materials were developed for the implementation of the toy directive, which will be used in the future by European and later non-European analytical laboratories to test the suitability of their methods. The working group was entrusted with this task because of its many years of experience in the production and characterisation of plastic standards. The method has also been patented worldwide. We also regularly produce customised doped polymer standards for many research institutes and industrial laboratories. We now have a masterbatch library of more than 600 characterised polymer materials, enabling us to produce standards for the most common plastics relatively quickly to customer requirements. We have also added organic additives to polymers to enable quantification by chromatographic methods such as GC or HPLC.

Damage analysis

x-ray mapping of a defect pipe
Suddenly a component fails, even though it has been successfully produced for years and no one in the value chain has made any changes? Do you find unknown deposits in your production process or on products? Is there discolouration or staining in some areas of your product? Do you need VOC analysis on a material? Do you need to replace an additive and the alternative does not provide the desired performance? We can help you with these and other challenges with an experienced team of analysts with a background in materials science and a strong practical orientation!
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Our research groups deal with the following topics:

  • Elucidation of degradation mechanisms in complex polymer systems
  • Aging mechanisms and degradation of additives in plastics
  • Clarification of failure mechanisms in plastic components
  • Development of new intrinsically antimicrobial polymers
  • Production of polymer standards with different additives and elements
  • Clarification of migration behaviour in plastics
  • Investigation of the fogging behaviour of polyurethanes
  • Development of element-analytical direct determination methods in plastics
  • Determination of VOCs from different sample matrices such as varnishes, paints, plastics, foodstuffs, consumer goods, building materials, etc. Adsorption behaviour of VOCs on different materials
  • Clarification of the distribution and diffusion coefficients of VOCs during the drying of paints
  • Analytical issues in the material and energy utilisation of biomass Analysis of plant constituents (terpenes, polyphenols) from phytoextracts
  • Method development for the process control of biogas plants and oiling plants
  • Analysing the migration of emitters from and into food packaging.

Development of methods and applications

HPLC Pump
For more than 20 years, the development of analytical procedures and methods has been one of the focal points of instrumental and plastics analysis. Our expertise ranges from application support for spectroscopic and chromatographic methods to the optimization of your applications and the development of new complex analytical tasks.

Our analysts cover the following instrumental techniques:

  • Energy and wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence (XRF)
  • Micro X-ray fluorescence up to areas with 600 x 800 mm (µ-XRF)
  • Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS)
  • Laser ablation (LA)
  • Gas Chromatography (GC and GC-MS)
  • High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC and HPLC-MS)
  • Thermal Desorption coupled to Gas Chromatography (TD-GC-MS)
  • Pyrolysis coupled to gas chromatography (Pyr-GC-MS) Elemental analysis (CHNS + O)
  • Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR-ATR)
  • Rheological analyses
  • Optical analysis (digital microscope

Multivariate data analysis

keyboard
The use of modern analysers, particularly coupled analysers, allows the use of multivariate data analysis methods and chemometrics. This means that correlations that are not readily accessible using conventional methods can be used for analysis.

Below are projects where multivariate data analysis has been used.

  • X-ray fluorescence analysis: quantification of the matrix elements C, H, N and O in plastics or other mainly organic material mixtures, which cannot be adequately determined or are actually not measurable.
  • Mass spectrometry: Determination of defined groups of molecules from mass spectra of complex samples using machine learning
  • Analysis of complex spectra and data sets (XRF, ICP and chromatography)

Paper, talks and presentation workinggroup IAKA

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List of publications of the IAKA working group
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