Foreign materials, especially microscopic particles, can lead to a variety of contamination problems in manufacturing, packaging, research and development, etc. Our scientists have decades of experience developing techniques to routinely isolate particles.

Particle Isolation

Micrometer- and nanometer-sized particles are routinely isolated and prepared for further detailed analysis. Isolation and separation of individual particles of interest from a bulk sample or substrate is essential to understanding the nature and impact of the contaminant or defect.

Cleanroom

Projects brought to McCrone Associates typically begin in our cleanroom laboratories, where microscopists examine, characterize and isolate materials of interest in preparation for further instrumental analysis. With more than 80 years’ combined experience, our cleanroom microscopists are skilled at working with solids, liquids, suspensions, and colloids, and often use novel approaches to particle isolation, tailored to the specific sample and analysis request. Whether it’s foreign particulate matter in a pharmaceutical vial, defects on a glass container, or a microscopic deposit on an integrated circuit die, our cleanroom microscopists can handle a wide variety of challenges.

McCrone Associates’ cleanroom is a certified ISO 14644 Class 5 environment (no more than 3,520 particles, 0.5 micrometers or larger, per cubic meter of air), and is continuously monitored for particulate, differential pressure, temperature, and humidity.