Motivation for direct procurement of a benchtop X-ray diffractometer
(motivering för undantagsförfarande)
The purpose of this procurement is to obtain a new state-of-the-art X-ray
benchtop diffractometer (XRD) to the SweDeliver competence center in drug
delivery at Uppsala University. The instrument will be hosted by the Department
of Pharmacy and utilized by SweDeliver researchers primarily located at the
Faculty of Pharmacy as well as the industrial partners. The equipment will thus
have a large number of users to characterize diverse particle and powder systems
for applications areas in pharmaceutical sciences. This includes, but is not limited
to, determination of crystallite size, analysis of phase composition and amorphous
content. These types of analyses often have to be performed in complex samples
containing different types of active pharmaceutical ingredients and excipients
where differences have to be detected at high resolution to assure adequate
product quality and performance. Therefore, the equipment can only be provided
by a particular tenderer (Bruker Analytical X-ray Systems Division, represented
by Blue Scientific in Sweden) due to the specific, high technical requirements
needed.
The following, specific requirements have to be fulfilled by the benchtop X-ray
diffractometer:
1. Detector that provides high-resolution with a low limit-of-detection and
minimal background noise. The benchtop XRD should have a high-resolution,
energy dispersive 1D detector that reduces Kβ radiation to less than 0.1% and
eliminates sample fluorescence through its uniquely high energy filtering
performance (<380 eV energy resolution). This leads to improved peak-tobackground ratio and boosts the limit-of-detection, and further creates clean
diffraction line profiles without metal filter artefacts for improved profile fit
accuracy. This feature is crucial for generating high-quality qualitative and
quantitative data. A specific application area for this at Uppsala University is the
analysis of iron-containing samples, such as iron oxide nanoparticles under
development as contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
2. High diffraction peak accuracy at high scan speed. The high performance
goniometer should guarantee accuracy of <± 0.02° throughout the entire
measuring range -3 to > 160° 2theta and maximum scan speed of 180 degrees
2theta/minute, to ensure simultaneous highest quality and fast benchtop XRD
measurements on a range of biomedical and pharmaceutical samples with
different measuring range needs. For example, the high degree of accuracy is key
for development and quantification of personalized dosage forms e.g. for
paediatrics (with low doses of active pharmaceutical ingredients and where minor
differences in crystal phase composition can have a major impact on their
performance). High scan speed is demanded due to the large number of materials
studied in the many projects coupled to the competence center, and that are in
need for rapid analysis in the laboratory to support project progression and
success.
The combination of these requirements described above are fulfilled exclusively
by the D2 PHASER benchtop XRD from Bruker Analytical X-ray Systems
Division. Furthermore, only Bruker offers the high-precision goniometer
mentioned above in point 2, which was invented by Bruker, is unique to Bruker
and is protected by patent EP 2 112 505 A1 in the EU.