Conference Contribution Details

 

RE Imhof, LI Ciortea, P Xiao & EP Berg.
Poster, 11th International PPP Conference, La Grande Motte, 2008.

 

Summary:-

The aim of this study was to assess the performance of a condenser-chamber AquaFlux™ instrument for barrier integrity testing, which offers the following advantages:-

1. The design of measurement head facilitates vapour-tight coupling with Franz cell donor chambers without the need to touch the membrane under test.
2. The controlled microclimate within the measurement chamber provides consistent evaporation conditions irrespective of ambient humidity.
3. The low humidity within the measurement chamber causes topically adhering water to dry off quickly during measurements. You therefore do not need to include a drying phase into such test protocols.
4. The measured water vapour flux curves clearly show the drying progress and therefore give quality control information for the tests. The software can be set to terminate the test automatically when the quality criteria are met, thus ensuring that the tests are neither prematurely terminated nor are run for longer than necessary.

We report measurements using both artificial membranes (Sil-Tec and PTFE) and bio-membranes (excised human epidermis, excised human stratum corneum & snake sheddings) to illustrate the capabilities and limitations of this approach.

 

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