Min Reqs and Specs QCM-D ANALYZER SYSTEM.docx

Minimum Requirements and Specifications Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Dissipation (QCM-D) Setup

Background:

We are conducting laboratory studies to measure the deposition and release of oxyanions such as arsenic on metal oxide surfaces in the presence and absence of organic matter under different redox conditions. We need a QCM-D measurement setup to simultaneously measure the mass, thickness, and viscoelastic properties of surface films on four independent surfaces to conduct these experiments.

The system needs to:

· Allow simultaneous measurement of mass, thickness, and viscoelastic properties of oxyanions, metal oxide colloids, and/or organic matter on 4 surfaces independently using the QCM-D technique

· Provide accurate readings at a high resolution to measure deposition and release under different physicochemical conditions, including redox properties.

Specifications and requirements for the QCM-D setup include:

1. Non-voltage readout of f & D, free from disturbances from parallel impedances, for excellent measurement accuracy and stability.

2. Measurement drift equal to or below 1 Hz/h for frequency and 0.15·10-6 1/h for Dissipation.

3. Temperature drift equal to or below 0.02 °C/h.

4. Sampling speed up to 300 f and D values per second for rapid kinetics experiments.

5. Uninterrupted capturing of the full range of events, independent of applied measurement mode or time resolution. Events from sub-monolayer uptake to medium exchange caught in the same measurement independent of kinetics.

6. Measurement of multiple harmonics to enable quantification of changes in mass or viscoelastic properties of soft layers and distinguish changes in layer thickness from changes in viscoelastic properties.

7. Five Acquisition modes to allow choosing the priority between speed and limit of detection most suitable for the system under study.

8. Smart Tuning feature for continuous and automatic adaptation of each sampling, based on output of the last sampling, to optimize time resolution and data quality in each measurement situation.

9. Measurement resolution equal to or better than 1 µHz for frequency/17,7·10-6 ng/cm2 for mass and 10-12 Dissipation resolution.

10. Temperature resolution equal to or better than 0.001°C

11. A maximum sensitivity of 0.5 ng/cm2 for mass and 0.04·10-6 for Dissipation

12. Required real-life performance for speed versus Limit of Detection (LOD) using 1 channel measuring all 7 harmonics:

13. 4 measurement channels allowing to perform measurements in flow and stagnant mode.

14. Full temperature control from 15-65.C in all four measurement channels.

15. Ability to connect the four measurement channels either in series, or parallel to run independent scripts simultaneously.

16. Optional autosampler for automated liquid management.

17. Four standard flow modules with homogenous flow profile to ensure even sample exposure, good thermal stability and lower risk of trapping air bubbles.

18. Optional customer validated flow module in PTFE for titanium sensitive reagents and chemicals.

19. Included analysis Software for 10 downloads.

20. Automated full viscoelastic modelling with up to 5 fitted parameters - time resolved thickness (or mass), viscosity, shear modulus and the frequency dependence of the viscosity and shear modulus.

21. Kinetics monitoring in real time and dynamic output data including kinetics, slope, rise time and more.

22. 3 modelling methods with traffic light indication of model fit.

23. Automatic data plotting and report tool.

24. More than 10 pre-defined methods for data extraction.

25. Batch mode for simultaneous analysis of >100 datafiles and easy step-by-step addition of new datafiles to the same analysis and report.

26. Template tool supporting reuse and sharing of data handling templates with other users.

27. 8 possible data export formats; Excel, BMP, JPG, WMF, GIF, PCX, PNG, TXT.

28. 50 or more fully validated and quality controlled standard sensor coatings; metals, oxides, carbides, polymers, functionalized coatings and sensors coated with standardized soils.

29. Inhouse customized sensor service provided by surface coating expert team with access to high-end sputtering and spin coating equipment.