Applied Microspheres - Particle Size Standards and Count Controls for Instrument Calibration - Distributed in the UK & Ireland by Caltag
Applied Microspheres
Applied Microspheres GmbH is a leading developer and manufacturer of high-precision polymer particle standards, serving both scientific and industrial sectors worldwide. Established through the combined expertise of BS-Partikel GmbH and Applied Microspheres BV, the company brings over two decades of specialised innovation to particle technology.
Operating from Mainz, Germany, Applied Microspheres provides meticulously engineered particle standards and custom-made solutions for pharmaceutical, biotechnology, diagnostics, semiconductor, food, and environmental research applications.
With all production carried out in-house and materials certified by ISO 17025 accredited national institutes, Applied Microspheres delivers exceptional quality, reproducibility and technical accuracy.
NanoStandard™ and MicroStandard™ Particle Size Standards
Applied Microspheres NanoStandard™ and MicroStandard™ Particle Size Standards are available in diameters ranging from 20 nm – 990 nm and 1 µm – 220 µm, respectively, for the calibration and validation of particle sizing instruments. They are suspended in an aqueous medium with trace amounts of an antimicrobial agent and proprietary surfactant for optimal colloidal stability. Additionally, to aid dispersion, they are packaged in 20 mL dropper tip bottles at a concentration of 1% (w/v) for the NanoStandard™ diameters and optimal concentrations for each diameter in the MicroStandards™ range.
These standards are manufactured under strict quality control to comply with the demands of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for traceability through an unbroken chain of measurements referring to NIST's Standard Reference Materials (SRMs). This range is also traceable to the standard meter of the International System of Units (SI).
A further level of traceability is available with the NanoStandard™ and MicroStandard™17025 series, which are certified to meet the criteria for instrument calibration under ISO/IEC 17025, the highest international metrological standard. These products are provided with an ISO 17025 compliant certification for your records.
Powder MicroStandards™
Powder MicroStandards™ are designed for particle sizing and counting instruments that can only be calibrated using dry particles. They are available in diameters of 3 to 220 µm and are composed of cross-linked polystyrene, with a density of 1.05 g/cm3.
These particles are traceable to the International System of Units (SI) and to NIST. Powder MicroStandards™ also show a calibration uncertainty < 2.5 %, which satisfies the ISO 21501-4 regulation, the international standard for an improved validation of the repeatability and reproducibility of air-particle counting instruments.
Particle Size Standard and Count Controls
The Particle Size Standard and Count Control product line is designed for optimal calibration and validation of particle sizing and counting instruments, particularly in liquid laser particle counters.
The particles are available in diameters ranging from 0.6µm to 100 µm and are composed of polystyrene for slow sedimentation during experiments. The products are provided in 20-mL dropper-tip bottles and prepared in a specially formulated medium as low-residue aqueous suspensions for minimal background interference.
This series is traceable to SI, which includes NIST traceability.
PharmaCounts™
The PharmaCount™ series is designed for the control of liquid particle counters in pharmaceutical QC laboratories that need to comply with US, European, Japanese or Korean Pharmacopiea regulations. They consist of polystyrene particle suspensions with precisely defined numbers of particles.
PharmaCounts™ are not suitable for replacing the official standards, but instead mimic the required specifications, making them ideally suited for performing regular tests to ensure analytical instrument compliance in GMP environments.
- PharmaCount™ US – meets the requirements of the "U.S. Pharmacopeia <1788.1>: Light Obscuration Method for the Determination of Subvisible Particulate Matter" in injections and ophthalmic solutions.
- PharmaCount™ BC – ideally suited for performing insoluble particulate matter tests for lipid injectable emulsions as prescribed by United States Pharmacopeia <729>.
- PharmaCount™ TC – designed to easily calibrate single particle optical sizing (SPOS) instruments using light extinction and/or scattering.
- PharmaCount™ JPKP – meets the requirements of the Japanese and Korean pharmacopeia insoluble particulate matter tests for injections.
These particle size standards are traceable to the International System of Units (SI). The Certificates of Traceability supplied with each product meet the requirements of GMP-compliant records of instrument validations.
Fluorescent Polymer Microspheres
Applied Microspheres offers fluorescently dyed particles in a variety of diameters, colours and intensity levels. The dyes are incorporated during the polymerisation process to prevent dye leakage, and Applied Microspheres' unique technology ensures exceptionally small fluorescence C.V.'s.
Fluorescent microspheres emit bright, distinctive colours when illuminated by wavelengths of light shorter than the emission wavelength, which improves their contrast and visibility relative to background materials. In addition to the features of conventional microspheres, fluorescent microspheres offer improved sensitivity and detectability for analytical methods, yielding very low detection limits for particle diameters and concentrations.
Fluorescent microspheres can be detected using a range of instruments, including flow cytometers, epifluorescence and confocal microscopes, and fluorescence spectrophotometers. They can also be identified with mineral light or black light and observed directly within the matrix or medium being tested, or collected on membrane filters for examination by fluorescence microscopy.
Typical applications include:
- Flow cytometry instrument calibration and set-up
- Fluorescence microscopy
- Fluorescent instrument monitoring
- Confocal microscopy reference particles
- Filtration media and systems testing
- Vial and container cleaning studies
- Flow tracing and fluid mechanics
- Centrifugation and sedimentation studies
These products are available as aqueous suspensions or dry powder. The aqueous medium for the suspensions is specially formulated to prevent agglomerate formation and ensure long-term stability.
Zeta Potential Controls
The Zeta Potential Controls by Applied Microspheres are considered a benchmark commercial product. They provide reliable Zeta potential values for both electrophoretic mobility and streaming potential methods, the most commonly used analytical principles.
These controls consist of negatively charged polystyrene particle suspensions, solely designed for reproducible zeta potential validation. A carefully controlled surface modification ensures a well-defined negative colloidal charge, resulting in strong, reliable signals under experimental conditions. The formulation is free of charged surfactants and buffered against CO2 uptake, minimising background noise and providing a stable physico-chemical environment.
These controls allow accurate instrument calibration, method development, and verification of colloidal stability testing across industrial and research environments.
Multi Modal Size Standards
Multi Modal Size Standards contains a mixture of particle size standards of different diameters to provide a versatile tool for accurate and reliable testing of the resolution of particle sizing instruments. They can be used for advanced operation qualification, particle size calibration, and determination of filter material cut-off values, including filtration efficiency, loading capacity, and more.
These mixtures use monodisperse polymer particles in an aqueous medium, which has been specially formulated to ensure optimal dispersion and prevention of agglomerate formation, for long-term stability.
General Research Particles
The 60000 series of General Research Particles is the 'Swiss army knife' of polymer microspheres for scientific applications and can be used if:
- You need high-quality polymer particles for your experiment.
- You need larger amounts of particles as a highly concentrated suspension or in powder form.
- You need a reliable long-term particle supply with the highest quality.
General Research Particles consist of highly concentrated suspensions (10% w/w) that are not traceable to SI units and typically do not have “rounded” nominal values. These products are primarily used where large quantities of high-precision material are required, but size traceability is not essential. The most common application is filter testing, particularly for the evaluation of exclusion and loading limits.
Available in a range of diameters from less than 0.1 µm to more than 100 µm, these microspheres are available in both aqueous suspension and dry powder form, providing flexibility for different experimental setups. You can request the incorporation of various features, such as surface modifications and fluorescent labelling, to meet your specific needs.