ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING ELECTRON-MICROSCOPY OF PERSONAL AND HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS

The ability to forego sample preparation and to make observations dire ctly in the environmental scanning electron microscope has benefited b oth household and personal product research at Unilever Research. Prod uct efficacy on biological materials such as microcomedones was easily ascertained. Skin biopsies were examined in a moist state with no sam ple preparation. Effects of relative humidity on detergents were visua lly determined by recreating the necessary conditions in the microscop e. Effects of cooling rates on the morphology of softener sheet active s that remained on polyester fabric were characterized via dynamic exp erimentation.