Introduction
As the cradle of Chinese applied chemistry, CIAC was founded in 1948 and is a comprehensive chemical institute covering basic and applied research, high-tech innovation and production in chemistry, which has achieved worldwide recognition.
Currently, CIAC’s research focuses on environment resources, advanced materials and new and renewable resources of energy as well as human healthcare industry. Today, CIAC has contributed more than 1,200 scientific achievements including more than 450 significant achievements such as nickel-based cis-polybutadiene rubber, solid propellants for rockets, extraction and separation technology of rare earth, and high polymer heat-shrinkable materials, etc. More than 100 achievements are firsts in China.
CIAC includes the following organizations including State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, State Key Laboratory of Electro analytical Chemistry, State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Resource Utilization, CAS Key Laboratory of Polymer Eco-materials, CAS Key Laboratory of Synthetic Rubber, Polymer Composite Engineering Laboratory and National Analytical Research Center of Electrochemistry and Spectroscopy.
Challenge
The Polymer Composite Engineering Laboratory is one subsidiary laboratory of CIAC, which is committed to providing solutions to solve key technical problems that occur in commercial production of polymer composite materials and form a professional platform covering preparation, quality control and assessment of polymer composite materials.
In 2011, Dr. Yang Mingyu and his team of the Polymer Composite Engineering Laboratory commenced research on modified polymer materials. Generally, the structure decides the performance of polymer materials. When a polymer material cannot meet the desired requirements, the scientists and researchers usually use physical or chemical methods to modify the structure of the polymer material in order to meet those requirements. Dr. Yang’s team needed a precise and stable testing instrument to validate the gas barrier properties of the materials after modification. They needed an instrument that can test the permeability of oxygen, nitrogen and carbon-dioaxide.
Solution
Dr. Yang and his team tried to find a suitable testing instrument from domestic and international manufacturers. Finally, they had three options, one from Labthink and two others from well-known US and German manufacturers.
Dr. Yang and his team studied very carefully the specifications of instruments from the three manufacturers mentioned above and did some sample tests. They found that instruments made by US and Germany manufacturers can’t test gases other than oxygen Moreover, the lower limit of the test range of the US and German instruments could not meet their requirements and the single chamber design of those instruments was less efficient.
Finally, they selected Labthink VAC-V2 Gas Permeability Tester. “We tested VAC-V2. The results are good and stable, as good as imported instruments but 30%~50% lower in cost. Labthink provides timely after-sales service at low expense. I think Labthink’s VAC-V2 is a very cost-effective choice.” Dr Yang said.
Using Labthink VAC-V2, Dr. Yang and his team obtained the gas permeability data of their modified materials at various temperatures and humidity within two days. Those permeability data include gas transmission rate, solubility coefficient and diffusion coefficient, which helped their researchers have a comprehensive understanding about factors that may influence the gas barrier properties of their modified materials. The whole testing process is automatic so the researchers were able to make excellent time utilization while the tests were performed. VAC-V2 can test various gases including oxygen, nitrogen, carbon-dioxide, helium and even mixed gases. In fact, it was very useful for the researchers to study the permeability of various gases against their modified materials.
“With VAC-V2, we really improved the efficiency in performance validation of materials”, the engineers from Dr. Yang’s team told us happily, “VAC-V2 is just the instrument that we need”. Actually, VAC-V2 is equipped with three independent test cells, which can test three various modified materials at the same time, 3times those of a single-cell instrument in testing efficiency.
“What impressed me about Labthink’s VAC-V2 is its features for extended applications. For example, the test range of VAC-V2 can be extended. Data fitting function is supported. Poisonous, explosive and combustible gases can be tested, which may be helpful to our further studies in the future”, said the engineers.
Conculsion
It has been almost 10 years since Labthink established their cooperation relationship with CIAC. With the in-depth advancing of bilateral cooperation our partnership gets stronger every day. One laboratory operator from CIAC told us, “Labthink provides us first-class after-sales service. They also provide us with customization services to meet our special testing requirements, usually within a very short period on our request”.
Due to their positive experience with the VAC-V2 State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, CAS Key Laboratory of Polymer Eco-materials and other subsidiary laboratories of CIAC also purchased W3/330 Water Vapor Transmission Rate Test System, DM2/330 Differential and Equal Pressure Method Gas Permeability Tester, BTY-B2 Gas Permeability Tester, XLW(PC) Auto Tensile Tester and HST-H3 Heat Seal Tester, etc. from Labthink.
With those testing instruments, many research projects were completed, such as “Comparative study on the gas permeability of new type TPE blood bag and PVC blood bag”, “Gas barrier property research on PUR-T and PVAL made by solution blending method” and “The effects of introducing trifluoromethyl side groups to diphenyl ether-type polyimide films on their water absorption and water vapor permeability”. Labthink instruments provided accurate test data for those research projects, which were used to validate the scientific achievements and guarantee the process of scientific research projects.
Owing to its good reputation among customers and powerful after-sales service, Labthink has established long-term stable cooperation with CIAC and more than 10 other organizations founded by Chinese Academy of Science including Suzhou Institute of Nano-tech and Nano-bionics (SINANO), Ningbo Institute of Industrial Technology, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Institute of Process Engineering, and Academy of Opto-electronics, etc.