Sirius Analytical Product Launch: Novel Particle Size Analysis and Digital Image Analysis combined

Sirius Analytical Instruments Ltd, the leaders in instrumentation and services for the determination of physicochemical properties, have launched a new product to address the challenging area of particle size and shape analysis. This complements our existing product range and expertise in solubility and dissolution analysis.

The Sirius Insight combines two powerful tools for measuring particle size and shape. Using laser obscuration technology, optical model and parameter free measurements of particle size can be made from wet and dry dispersions. Particle size is measured on individual particles without assuming particle shape. This gives highly meaningful and robust measurements of size.

The instrument incorporates a second measurement channel which enables digital image analysis of the same particle population to generate up to 40 different shape parameters. This analysis gives important understanding of particle morphology and how it can influence product and process performance.

Brian Stockton, Product Manager for the Sirius Insight explains: “Particle sizing presents many challenges to the analyst and during 15 years of working with particle size analysis I have actively sought new approaches to mitigate many of these challenges. Insight now presents a new opportunity to overcome issues of reproducibility and artefacts associated with other techniques. Increased information content is provided through the addition of an imaging channel which enables size data to be validated and gives access to many more particle parameters which will help us understand our particles better”

John Comer, Chief Scientific Officer of Sirius Analytical, added: "At Sirius, we have a long history of scientific expertise in the field of solution-based physical chemistry property measurements. As we have become more established in the realm of investigating amorphous and crystalline solids through our CheqSol solubility and Gastrointestinal Dissolution work, our customers have expressed a desire to better understand the properties of their APIs and formulations in the solid form, with the shape and size of particles being a fundamental parameter. I am confident that the Sirius Insight is versatile and innovative enough to meet the well-known challenges our customers routinely face in this notoriously difficult space.”