AMETEK Scientific Instruments Partners with Swiss Laboratory on Soft Probe Technology for Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy
Partnership with the Laboratory of Physical and Analytical Electrochemistry – Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (LEPA-EPFL) to Develop and Promote Soft Probe Technology for Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy (SECM)
Contact: Ari Tampasis (865) 483-2122, ari.tampasis@ametek.com
OAK RIDGE, TN, USA -- AMETEK Scientific Instruments, a unit of AMETEK, Inc., has entered into an exclusive agreement with the Laboratory of Physical and Analytical Electrochemistry – Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (LEPA-EPFL) of Switzerland to promote, develop and sell the laboratory’s soft probe technology for scanning electrochemical systems (SECM).
A team from the laboratory, headed by Prof Hubert Girault, will work closely with AMETEK engineers to integrate a range of probe technologies to address a broad spectrum of material test requirements, including electrodes and arrays for testing coatings that prevent corrosion, biological tissue studies, electrochemical catalysts screening, and more.
Soft probe technology overcomes a number of well-known limitations with traditional SECM. To remove topographic effects from SECM data, existing systems use electronics and transducer systems that not only add significant cost to the SECM system, but also suffer from either slow scanning times or use hard probes, which can damage fragile material such as biologic samples.
In contrast to those limitations, the Swiss team’s soft probe technology has been shown to form a permanent contact with the sample, allowing for constant probe – sample separation. In addition, the flexibility of the soft probes allows them to traverse highly corrugated surfaces and rounded objects such as tumour samples. That flexibility is critical to allowing SECM image of delicate samples without damaging them.
For more information or information on specific applications, users can visit www.princetonappliedresearch.com or email john.harper@ametek.com.
Caption: Scanning electrochemical (SECM) microfinger scanning a melanoma tumor block
AMETEK Scientific Instruments is a unit within AMETEK’s Materials Analysis Division (MAD). AMETEK, Inc. is a leading global manufacturer of electronic instruments and electromechanical devices with annual sales of $4.0 billion
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