Mar 28 1985
From The Space Library
NASA announced it had presented at a ceremony at NASA Headquarters its 1984 inventor of the year award to Dale Kornfeld, Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), and John Vanderhoff, Mohammed El-Asser, and Fortunato Micale, all of Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, for their "process for preparation of large-particle size monodisperse latexes." The monodisperse latex reactor processor, an experiment flown aboard the Space Shuttle, had produced microspheres in zero gravity in sizes ranging from 5 to 30 micrometers. The maximum size particles produced on earth, with the required standards of quality and uniformity, were about 2 to 3 micrometers.
Researchers used microspheres in calibrating sensitive scientific instruments such as microscopes, filters, and particle counters. Medical uses included identification of cancer and glaucoma and the study of the transport of materials inside living organisms. Industrial applications included the production of finely ground products such as paint pigments, inks, toners, explosives, and other powder materials.
NASA took an important step toward making the microspheres commercially available when it presented 15 grams of 10-micrometer particles to the Commerce Department's National Bureau of Standards for certification as "standard reference material." (NASA Release 85-44)
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