Approximately 200 editors in attendance at PITTCON 2009 gathered yesterday evening to vote for the winner's of the Gold, Silver and Bronze medals for this year's Editor's Choice Awards. The winning products chosen best exemplify quality, innovation and creativity. To be nominated, a product must be appearing on the show floor for the first time. The 2009 winners are listed here:
Gold: inXitu Terra Field Portable XRD/XRF Instrument
The inXitu iX-T Terra is the first truly portable XRD system designed specifically for rock and mineral analysis. The unit's patented sample handling system minimizes sample preparation time and achieves accuracy in peak identification previously only available using laboratory based systems can be achieved. XRD data from Terra can be readily analyzed using the software of a laboratory XRD instrument, or third party applications. Utilizing software embedded in the unit itself, the user accesses the operating system through a wireless connection (802.11 b/g), allowing for a wide degree of flexibility in controlling the instrument and subsequent data handling. Available phase identification pattern matching software provides a complete analysis using either publicly available diffraction pattern databases or common commercially available databases, such as PDF2/PDF4.
Silver: O.I. Corporation/Picarro iTOC-CRDS Isotopic Carbon Analyzer
The iTOC-CRDS Isotopic Carbon Analyzer combines an OI Analytical total organic carbon analyzer with a Picarro G1103-i cavity ring down spectrometer to measure organic carbon, inorganic carbon, or total carbon along with the isotopic ratio of 12C and 13C carbon. This combined technique supports the analysis of aqueous and solid samples. Organic compounds in aqueous samples can be oxidized in the reaction chamber of the TOC Analyzer using heated sodium persulfate. Alternatively, solid samples can be placed in a quartz crucible and oxidized by high temperature combustion in the Solids Module. The CO2 produced by either method is then introduced into the Picarro isotopic CO2 analyzer for measurement of the 13C/12C isotope ratio. The instrument can be configured with an autosampler for use with aqueous samples. Applications for this instrument include origin of food and adulteration analyses for such products as wine, fruit juice, edible oils, including olive oil, seeds, nuts, fruits, chocolate, and dairy products. In addition, this system serves environmental science applications such as carbon isotope distribution in soils, sediments, and plant materials as well as limnology, hydrobiology, marine and freshwater ecosystem studies.
Bronze: Shimadzu IG 1000 Particle Size Analyzer
The IG-1000 uses the induced grating method, which is based on a new principle for measuring the size of nanoparticles using the phenomenon of induced electrophoresis and diffracted light, to provide excellent reproducibility and the acquisition of stable data, particularly for sub-10 nm particles. The IG method does not use scattered light, is free from physical restrictions and does not require the input of the refractive index as a measurement condition. As a result, the IG-1000 can measure the size of nanoparticles simply and with high sensitivity, and is particularly effective for the analysis of single nanoparticles. This new measurement principle is resistant to contamination and, even if the sample is mixed with small amounts of foreign particles, information about the particles to be analyzed is captured reliably. The filtering of samples in order to remove coarse particles is not required.
Click here to view other nominated products and more from the winners' PITTCON portfolios.