Particle Identification

Rely on the team at Micro Measurement Labs to identify unknown contaminant particles in your facility or process. We provide particle isolation and identification services by optical microscopy, Fourier-Transform/Infra-Red (FT-IR), or Raman spectroscopy.

Problem Solving through Contaminant Identification

Particle identification has applications for problem solving in many industries: pharmaceutical, implantable and terminally-sterilized medical device, automotive, semiconductor, aerospace, and general parts cleaning. Often, just knowing what the offending material is leads to the discovery of the root cause of the problem, which means quicker remediation and less costly downtime.

Analytical techniques and instruments are utilized using microscopes and microscope-based instrumentation. These include:

Particle Isolation

Filtration or manual isolation in a HEPA filtered area onto an appropriate filter/media for subsequent analysis, including specially coated membranes.

Light Microscopy

Stereomicroscopy (General Observation and Sample Preparation)
Polarized Light Microscopy (Morphology, Fibers, Crystallinity, Birefringence)

FT-IR and Raman Microspectrosopy

Using transmission, reflectance, and ATR techniques, infrared analysis can be applied to macro-sized samples as well as to individual particles as small as 20 µm by FT-IR and 5µm by Raman. This technique is most valuable for organic compounds. It gives information about the covalent bonds and functional groups present in compounds, allowing class or specific identification.

Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy

SEM provides imaging and EDS provides elemental information about the sample. This is best for metals, minerals, metal salts of organic compounds, and metal-containing organic compounds.

Photomicrography

Imaging and documentation.

Submit a sample using our Sample Submission Form.