2015 Press Releases

International innovation award for BARDS team

7 Jan 2015

The Analytical Scientist magazine has ranked a UCC invention among its top global innovations of the year.

The UCC-based BARDS (Broadband Acoustics Resonance Dissolution Spectroscopy) Research Centre offers a new platform technology with broad applications in the food and pharmaceutical industries, from R&D to at-line monitoring. The innovation was developed by Dr Dara Fitzpatrick and his team in the Department of Chemistry and the ABCRF (Analytical and Biological Chemistry Research Facility).

The technology is fast, small, economic and simple to operate. The BARDS team also received a Pfizer Award in 2013 for ‘Innovation through teamwork’. The new spectrometer creates a paradigm shift in powder and materials analysis.

The innovation is ranked among those from the top instrumentation companies in the world. A copy of the latest issue of The Analytical Scientist can be downloaded here or contact Dara Fitzpatrick at d.fitzpatrick@ucc.ie for more information.

Speaking in detail on the science behind the technology, Dr Fitzpatrick commented: “We’ve developed a new acoustic based spectrometer, which detects changes in the compressibility of solvents during the dissolution of analytes. These changes in compressibility are highly reproducible under standardised conditions. This shows there are highly ordered processes occurring during dissolution, which were previously regarded as random and chaotic. The dissolution vessel is induced to resonate using a magnetic stir bar. These resonances change and result in signature time/frequency profiles for a particular analyte. The phenomenon is due to entrained gases in the powder/tablet along with a reduction in the solubility of gases already in solution leading to outgassing in solution."

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