Weighing every particle: ETH spin-off femtoG presents its powder analyser
Zurich start-up femtoG measures the mass and size of individual nanoparticles. A new ETH video shows the technology, which is meant to help with batteries and coatings, among others.
Photo: Balise42 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Video: YouTube · ETH Zürich · youtube.com
ETH Zurich released a video about its spin-off femtoG on 14 October. The Zurich company develops analysers for particles and powders. According to ETH, they help industry better understand the size, mass and structure of particles and thus improve quality control and production processes; femtoG itself names better batteries, cleaner air and longer-lasting coatings as goals. The company was founded in July 2024 and supported by the Swiss funding programme Venture Kick.
According to company documents, the PowMaster instrument determines the mass and diameter of every single particle: mass by centrifugation, diameter via electrical mobility. The two values give the packing density, which shows whether a particle is porous or made of clumped fragments. The measuring range is 5 nanometres to 5 micrometres, and a measurement takes 5 to 15 minutes. Unlike laser diffraction, no assumptions about properties such as the refractive index are needed.
femtoG has its roots in aerosol science; the team includes Jörg Wieder, Chief Business Officer, who earned his doctorate at ETH, and co-founder Franz Friebel. A second, patented instrument called picoG for larger microparticles of 5 to 100 micrometres is still in development, according to the company.