AVS 52nd International Symposium
    Applied Surface Science Friday Sessions
       Session AS-FrM

Invited Paper AS-FrM3
Surface Analysis in Modern Industry - More, Faster, Cheaper, Better?

Friday, November 4, 2005, 9:00 am, Room 206

Session: Practical Methods and Applications for Surface Analysis
Presenter: I.W. Fletcher, ICI plc, UK
Authors: I.W. Fletcher, ICI plc, UK
S.F. Davies, ICI plc, UK
Correspondent: Click to Email
The driving aim of most industrial activity is to make money by producing and selling products that people need or want and many processes and products involve surfaces or surface chemistry issues where surface analysis can deliver significant benefits. Research and development along with process and product problem solving are the obvious areas, although SHE, patent protection and various legal applications are also important. There is pressure on most businesses to increase profitability and to reduce costs, with analysis all too often being seen as pure cost. The 'do more, faster, cheaper' requirement may seem to conflict with the unwritten requirement to 'do it right'. Industrial analytical problems can and do provide significant challenges, often pushing analysts, instrumentation and techniques to the limits of what is possible. Fortunately modern equipment is now more reliable, often automated and is also capable of producing better quality data with much higher signal to noise levels and with better resolution than before. These help with the speed and accuracy of analysis and also open up new areas of information that were previously inaccessible. For example, images of the various species on the surface can be critical to a complete understanding of the situation and to many product developments. Using static SIMS with polyatomic and cluster ion beams, it is now routinely possible to generate images from truly molecular species rather than from elemental or small fragment ion species. This presentation will outline several practical examples using SSIMS and XPS applied to 'industrial' samples including man-made fibres, hair, foodstuffs and catalysts.