I am looking to purchase a BET surface area and porosimetry measurement equipment. The equipment will be primarily used for amorphous carbon materials, but also for sol gel, ceramics, glass etc. There are a few that I have shortlisted: Horiba SA9600, NOVA e series, Micrometrics gemini systems. I will really appreciate feedback from the users of these (or any other) machines on i) ease of use (hardware + software), ii) reproducibility, iii) maintenance, and iv) quality of technical support from the manufacturer. Thanks in advance for your time, much appreciated.
I think the Quantachrome autosorb-iq is a very good choice. I used it in last two months. Its very humanistic and user-friendly, especially for the scientific research both for meso and mciro porous materials. Also including your areas. The attachments include the software and manual. I can not upload the software because this kind of file cannot be supported. I can send it to you via email.
Thank you Li Luo for your feedback and the manual. Regards, Palash.
All machines are quite good, in general, what really makes the difference is the people doing the technical support. When someone leaves and is replaced by someone else, it happens that everything changes, irrespective to the quality of the machines. I purchased everything from Micromeritics (ASAP 2020, ASAP 2040, Triflex, Autopore, HPVA, Accupyc, Geopyc, etc.) and I am very happy with them. Comparing costs and technical performances, they are among the best, if not the best for sure. My conclusion is based on accuracy, range of available mesurements, available methods in the software, etc., that I compared carefully, and of course on the reliability of people. The big boss from Micromeritics even came in person to my lab, this would have never happen with any other company.
Alain
Dear Li Luo, this is exactly what I wrote. Equipments can be quite good, but people are even more important. So it really depends on where you are located and where is the technical support. For example, I'll never purchase Schimatzu because the only office in Europe is in Germany, there is nothing in France, nor I'll vever purchase DataPhysics anymore as the service in France is ZERO with unskilled and dishonest people.
Alain
Alain, agreed. That is indeed always a key factor in equipment purchase decision. I have used Micromeritics system before, and as you said, they are excellent in providing quality tech support. Thanks, Palash
I agree with Alain that service and the people doing it are crucial. We have a Quantachrome Autosorb and a Micromeritics Gemini VII 2390. When it comes to those 2 instruments the QC is the better choice for characterization of ultramicroporous materials, because of its high accuracy at low to very low pressures (below 10^-4 p/p0 for N2 at 77K) but the measurements are extremely slow because of the dosing mechanism. Due to that we can not measure isotherms with high data resolution at low and higher pressures (dewar empty before the measurement is done). Service of QC in Germany is excellent, and they (particularly Dietmar Klank who's one of the most knowledgeable people in the field I've talked to) are always happy to discuss my scientific issues and help me out with customized solutions etc.
Micromeritics Germany is around the corner for us. I am very fond of our Gemini, often I get the impression that I'm more fond of it than Micromeritcs themselves. The main reason is its dosing mechanism that differs from all other instruments. Due to that it measures a whole lot faster and allows for some applications that are not possible on other instruments (diffusion, measuring wet samples etc). It is not the best device for N2 measurements at low p/p0 (below 10^-4), but there are other adsorptives that are better suited for that anyhow. Service people are good and helpful, but never ask MM for a custom solution. Those are ridiculously priced, and whatever your question, they'll always first try to sell you a more expensive device than the one you have. MM also charges a lot more for the accessories (tubes, filters, o-rings etc) than QC. I for example paid something like 50 euros for a useless plastic funnel for filling sample cells, with which there is no way to properly fill a sample cell. On the other hand, the Gemini is probably one of the cheapest quality instruments on the market.
regards,
Pieter
For MM, I can't believe it the funnel is so expensive, I just charge 5 Yuan for the local technician. Every time I will order 10 funnels. And the tube is 680 Yuan that is so expensive.
And for QC, the engineer told me we can stop the analysis and fill the liquid N2 to the dewar. You can try it. Its very easy, but being careful that you can use a big funnel and a duct.
The funnel is Part No. 240-25853-00, I can't find back the exact price, but it was quite absurd. It is a worthless piece of plastic because it doesn't have a tube to guide the powder to the bottom of the sample cell, so a lot of material sticks to the walls of the cell when using it. I also remember getting an overly expensive cleaning brush that wasn't long enough to reach the bottom of the shortest sample tubes I have. I definitely won't order any accessories there anymore. QC btw has very nice and reasonably priced glass funnels.
I got the procedure to refill the dewar during analysis on the Autosorb from QC. It is not as simple as just stopping the measurement and refilling, because the thing has a level sensor which doesn't work when submerged in N2. The dewar needs to be lowered and raised manually in very small steps. It works, but the entire procedure is quite delicate (lowering too far at once corrupts the isotherm) and rather dangerous too (refilling LN2 with a tube and funnel, through a small gap at about 2m height).
Thanks Pieter for your feedback. Clearly, the "quality" of local tech support / service is equally important as the machine. I will see if I can get some user feedback from the local sales / tech support area.
As for the capability of machines, I believe, Gemini is equivalent to NOVA e-series, Autosorb QC to Tristar II -- so on and so forth. Good porosimetry measurement is never easy, but what could be done using these machines has changed a lot in last 10 years. I am excited.
Take a look on Micromeritics new instrument TriStar II PLUS. It has 3 sample ports, one is dedicated to micro-pore analyzses. It also have a new Dewar that is said to save on liquid nitrogen, one Dewar is enough for a micro-pore determination (72 hours).
Just wanted to update this thread (no way of closing) that I have decided to go for Hiden Isochema IGA 100 system. This system seemed to offer everything that we wanted. If you want to know more please contact me offline. Thank you all for your feedback.
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