Eldico Scientific opens world’s first experience centre for electron diffraction

ELDICO Scientific AG specialises in electron diffractometers – novel analytical instruments for electron-based crystallography that make it possible to investigate nanocrystalline samples. Its flagship product ELDICO ED-1 is specifically designed for nanocrystallographic investigations. The device combines an electron beam of radically simplified design with a goniometer, precise down to the sub-micrometer level. Building on proven approaches from X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy, the new tool combines the best of these worlds, enabling diffraction experiments at the nano-scale in an easy-to-install, user-friendly device. With its superior features, the ELDKICO ED-1 outperforms any other method used for nano-sized samples and allows for analysing previously too small samples.

In collaboration with Switzerland Innovation Park Basel Area Eldico has opened the world’s first experience centre for electron diffraction in Basel, providing an application laboratory for advanced nanoanalytics to users from industry and science. Until now, offering nanocrystallographic services on an industrial scale was impossible because conducting such analyses requires expensive and technically demanding electron microscopes. Currently, these devices are operated by universities and occasionally by large industrial companies – thus not generally accessible.

The Experience Center’s long-term contractual customers include the companies Hoffmann-LaRoche, Idorsia, Boehringer-Ingelheim from Germany and the Swiss Nanoscience Institute (SNI). In addition, the Experience Center is open to other users with a broad portfolio of nanocrystallographic services. Interested customers can send in material samples. The company’s experienced scientific staff will process them quickly and reliably.

“With the Experience Center, we are making it easier for crystallographers from the pharmaceutical and other industries to get started with nanocrystallography. We enable them to deliver the structural information – important for academic and commercial research – faster, in better quality and at a competitive price. The ELDICO ED-1 installed in Basel delivers excellent analytical results even for challenging organic compounds,” says Eric Hovestreydt, founder and Chief Commercial Officer of ELDICO Scientific.

(Press release/RAN)