Household products = chemical compositions
We all use many household products that were developed to make our daily lives more comfortable, whether we are talking about detergents and cleaning agents or about ointments, creams or suspensions. They all have this in common: in essence we are dealing with chemical compositions.
Shortcomings and imperfections of these products may show up as a lack of stability (sedimentation, creaming, phase separation), discoloration, bad smell or aggressiveness towards the human body. These phenomena obey the same laws of physicochemistry as any other dispersion.
Product formulation, deformulation, interactions and stability
At AgfaLabs, we monitor colloidal stability of suspensions and emulsions in a well-equipped lab. Moreover, we are aware of the mechanisms that govern this (un)stability. Rheology, tensiometry, particle characterization and sedimentometry are – of course – the first handles we use. Next to that, we have developed methodologies that reveal the underlying processes of adsorption/desorption, solubility and particle-particle interactions.
Using the Hansen Solubility Parameters, for example, we optimize interfacial interactions between compounds in a composition. Practical applications of this are the solvency of cleaning products, the resistance to chemical attack by solvents, the shelf life of a suspension and the uptake of creams by the human skin, among others.
High-throughput formulation techniques allow to reduce time-to-market for the development of new products, while high-throughput analysis techniques allow to unravel the composition of an existing benchmark.
Life sciences and cosmetics services
Our team of experts offers the following research procedures, analyses and tests to improve your life sciences project, household products or cosmetics:
- deformulation (re-engineering)
- high throughput analytics
- material analysis and testing
- troubleshooting and failure analysis
Add our expertise to yours …
