Insplorion’s Nanoplasmonic Sensing Instruments are highly versatile and extremely surface sensitive tools for real-time studies of processes that occur at the nanoscale. Based on Insplorion’s proprietary optical technology, Nanoplasmonic Sensing (NPS), these robust instruments utilize the optical phenomenon known as Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance (LSPR) and offer sub-second temporal resolution with ultra-sensitivity for both liquid- and gas-phase measurements.
The instruments use sensor chips that are covered with gold nanodisks which act as local sensing probes to detect changes in their close environment. A thin dielectric spacer layer (e.g. SiO2, Si3N4, Al2O3, TiO2) separates the gold sensing nanostructures from the sample material. This spacer layer also opens up for a tailored surface chemistry and enables measurements at higher temperatures and under harsh chemical conditions.
This offers many possibilities to explore “nano” effects and processes in a broad range of areas such as the life sciences, biomaterials, pharmaceutics, biocatalysts, cleantech and solar cells.
Typical interests and uses include:
- Adsorption/desorption/binding processes
- Phase transitions – Conformational changes
- Chemical reactions on/in thin films or nanoparticles
- Studies in nanotoxicoloy
- Diffusion in porous thin films
- Light triggered/sensitive processes
- Temperature triggered/sensitive processes
And typical analytes used on sensors include:
- SAMs
- Proteins, lipids, peptides, DNA
- Thin and ultrathin films
- Porous materials
- Oxides, nitrides and hydrides
- Liquid crystals
- Gases
And application areas in which customers from around the world are using Insplorion’s instruments:
- Biomolecular interactions
- Polymer physics
- DSSC and solar cells
- Catalysis and surface physics
- From Professor Bengt Kasemo, Professor of Physics at Chalmers and Chairman of the Board of Insplorion AB.
“The NPS technique is a perfect addition to many QCM and QCM-D experiments, where one needs optical characterization as a complement to the electroacoustic information provided by QCM and QCM-D. Many examples in literature show the virtue of such combinations by using QCM/QCM-D and e.g. ellipsometry, reflectometry or SPR”. - From Professor Michael Grätzel, a world-leading scientist in the area of solar cells (Millennium Prize 2010, Albert Einstein Awards 2012).
“I find Insplorion’s technology extremely interesting for studies of dye impregnation of Dye Sensitized Solar Cells. It is likely to become a valuable tool to improve the dye impregnation process and thus the performance of DSCs.” - From Prof. Hans Niemantsverdriet (Head of Physical Chemistry of Surfaces at Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands).
“The Insplorion X1 is a great tool for us, as we can now monitor all the solid state transformations in catalytic nanoparticles in 2-dimensional model systems. We can even study the kinetics of such transitions. I wish we had this instrument ten years earlier!”
For further information including application notes, please contact us