Introducing the IGAsorp Product Family: A Practical Guide to Selecting the Right DVS Instrument

Dynamic Vapor Sorption (DVS) has become an essential technique across many industries, such as pharmaceuticals, food science, polymers, energy materials, and advanced functional materials. However, laboratories often find it difficult to determine which instrument best aligns with their application.

The IGAsorp family has been developed to address this need directly, offering a coherent range of systems built on a shared engineering philosophy, with each model optimized to tackle different analytical challenges.

This article provides a structured, application-focused guide to help users identify the most appropriate model for their work.

Image Credit: Hiden Isochema

A Shared Engineering Foundation

Although the four IGAsorp models differ in capability, they share the same underlying principles:

• Low-drift and high-stability microbalance performance
• True environmental accuracy with temperature and humidity at the sample
• Robust and stable construction for long-term reliability
• HIsorp software provides a unified operating environment across the family

This consistency ensures that users can select the model that suits their needs without compromising on data quality or workflow familiarity.

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IGAsorp Core: A Cost-Effective Entry Point for Routine DVS

Best for: Routine, Water-Only Sorption

The IGAsorp Core is designed for laboratories that require routine DVS under ambient conditions. It is a budget-friendly route into DVS without sacrificing measurement integrity.

The system has a temperature range of 15–40 °C, with class-leading temperature stability of ±0.05 °C, and a relative humidity range of 0–98 %. HIsorp is also intentionally streamlined on the IGAsorp Core, supporting routine workflows with clarity and efficiency.

Typical applications include:

• Hygroscopicity assessment of pharmaceutical active ingredients, excipients, and formulations
• Assessing the water activity of processed foods and raw ingredients, e.g., seeds
• Moisture sensitivity assessments of building materials, such as cement and wood
• Routine water sorption measurements

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IGAsorp: Greater Versatility for Research and Development

Best for: Routine and Exploratory Sorption Work

The capabilities of the IGAsorp extend beyond ambient conditions, offering an extended temperature range of 5–50 °C. 

The application range is broader too, with options for an integrated preheater, organics compatibility, and hyphenation options (video microscopy, IR/Raman spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry). HIsorp functionality is expanded into a full research environment, enabling advanced method development, modeling, and data analysis.

Typical applications include:

• Investigating phase changes (such as polymorphic and glass transitions) of pharmaceuticals
• Assessing water and organic uptake of porous materials, e.g., zeolites, MOFs
• Assessing barrier performance of polymers and packaging
• Determining the moisture sensitivity of battery materials, e.g., LFP, NMC.
• Academic and industrial research laboratories

IGAsorp-CT: High-Temperature Humidity Control for Advanced Materials

Best for: Advanced Research

For applications requiring elevated temperatures or more complex environmental conditions, the IGAsorp-CT provides a temperature range of 5–85 °C. It also offers superior high-temperature humidity control compared to other systems on the market, enabling 0–98 % RH runs up to 80 °C.

Typical applications include:

• Assessing the ability of fuel-cell-related membranes (e.g., Nafion) and electrocatalysts to absorb and desorb water, with results often correlating with conductivity measurements
• Climatic testing of electronics and semiconductors
• Stress testing of materials (e.g., polymers) at high temperature/high humidity

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IGAsorp-XT: Extreme-Temperature DVS for Specialist Research

Best for: Extreme Conditions

The IGAsorp-XT is the flagship system offering the widest temperature range of any DVS system, from 5–300 °C. Humidity can be controlled at these elevated temperatures, enabling high-temperature sorption experiments. 

A preheater with a maximum temperature of 350 °C is included as standard for high-temperature pretreatment and sample regeneration. An external auto-filler is also supplied to minimize the need to manually refill water when operating at high temperatures, therefore extending uninterrupted operation.

Typical applications include:

• High-temperature sorption of porous materials
• Catalysts and catalyst supports
• Energy materials, such as solid-oxide systems
• Thermal stability and degradation studies

Source: Hiden Isochema

Conclusion

The IGAsorp family provides laboratories with a clear and scalable pathway into Dynamic Vapor Sorption, whether the requirement is routine quality control or advanced high-temperature materials research. By combining a consistent engineering foundation with distinct capability tiers, the range allows users to select an instrument that aligns precisely with their analytical objectives and budget.

New to the range, the IGAsorp Core plays a central role in this structure, offering an accessible and dependable entry point while maintaining the measurement integrity that defines the IGAsorp platform.

Together, the IGAsorp family enables users to approach sorption analysis with the confidence and capability they need to meet their scientific goals.

This information has been sourced, reviewed, and adapted from materials provided by Hiden Isochema.

For more information on this source, please visit Hiden Isochema.