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PerspectivesFacilities focusSalford Analytical ServicesTake a peek inside one of our enterprising labsSalford Analytical Services(SAS) is a unique facilityon the University campus.Located in the CockcroftBuilding, from the outsidethe SAS laboratories are veryunassuming but inside they are a showcaseof some of the most sophisticated scientificequipment the institution owns. Within theSAS laboratories there are a range of hightechmicroscopes and analytical instrumentsthat can examine materials at the ‘nano’scale. They have recently invested in a stateof-the-artTransmission Electron Microscope(TEM) that has a magnification range over1,000,000 and can produce images of atomicstructures down to a few nanometres (nm) insize. A nanometre is a millionth of a millimetreand, to give a sense of scale, a human hair isabout 60,000 nm thick and a single flu virus istypically about 100 nm in diametre.Kirit Amin demonstrates the operation of the high fieldNuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectrometer.Other equipment in SAS includes a NuclearMagnetic Resonance (NMR) spectrometerand an X-ray Diffractometer, which areused to accurately determine the chemicalcomposition of a wide variety of materialssuch as pharmaceuticals, paints, minerals andplastics. Not only does SAS provide a service tostudents, researchers and academics but theyalso undertake a large amount of commercialanalytical work for external companies. Forexample, they have recently been workingwith a car manufacturer to determine why theseat coverings were wearing out prematurely.Other projects have included the analysis ofpharmaceutical products to determine if theywere genuine or counterfeit.The highly sophisticated equipment and theextremely experienced technical staff withinSAS make for a very powerful combination.How samples are prepared has a hugeinfluence on the results; it takes a great dealof skill to prepare samples for the new TEMmachine, which requires very thin slices about50nm thick and samples for other microscopeshave to be coated with a thin layer of a metalsuch as palladium. There is a small close-knitteam at SAS comprising two analyticalchemists, Joe McMahon and Kirit Amin,with Geoff Parr managing the wholeoperation. All the SAS team have comefrom industry and between them they haveover 95 years' experience in materials andanalytical chemistry.Geoff Parr commented: “We are an unusuallaboratory in the University in that we don’thave researchers or academics. Our philosophyis very much about offering a professionalservice both internally to researchers andexternally to business. Our equipment isstate-of-the-art and expensive to run, so theincome from the external commercial work iscrucial since it makes a major contribution toour running costs. If it weren’t for thecommercial work, we would not be able tooperate much of this equipment and ourresearchers would lose out. The commercialwork is also a great challenge for us – we haveno idea what will come through the door next,but given our experience we have usually comeacross a similar problem before.”Much of the commercial work comes fromlocal companies, many of whom are small andcould not justify purchasing their ownanalytical equipment. One such company isManchester-based Lofrix, who manufactureadditives for use in lubricating oils. Ian Sibbick,a director at Lofrix, said: “I am very impressedwith the range of equipment, the knowledgeof the team and the set up at SAS. We arebased in Manchester and, as a small company,it’s really valuable to us to be able to access thistype of capability.”Professor Nigel Mellor, Pro-Vice-ChancellorEnterprise, concludes: “Since SAS establishedin 2009, Geoff and his team have achievedan excellent reputation within the College ofScience and Technology for their technicalexpertise and ability to solve problems. Theyalso have an impressive range of commercialclients and have established themselves asthe first choice for analytical services witha number of multinational medical devicemanufacturers. Moving forward, they willbe playing a key role in the development ofour innovation cluster, which will be workingclosely with business in the Bio Sector.”For more information about SAS, visit:www.analytical-services.salford.ac.ukt: + 44 (0) 161 295 3343 / 5703 ore: SAS@salford.ac.uk22 | May 2013