Deputy Head of the Materials Characterisation Unit, Dr Mark Perkins, joined Rubber Consultants four years ago as an analyst.

Mark graduated from the University of Southampton with a BSc (Hons) in chemistry and remained at Southampton in the Department of Electrochemistry to complete his PhD. For this he carried out an electrochemical and morphological study of carbon/EPDM based electrodes for use in rechargeable lithium-ion cells. He was able to increase the cycling efficiency of the electrodes thus potentially extending the life cycle of lithium-ion cells.

Mark’s post-doctoral work at Southampton involved working on lyotropic liquid crystal templated nano-structured manganese dioxide for use as an electrode material in non-rechargeable batteries.

Work at TARRC has exploited Mark’s solid background in chemistry and expertise in general analytical techniques such as FTIR, TGA, NMR, microscopy and chromatography. He is responsible for the laboratory’s gas chromatography (GC) work which incorporates headspace GC-NPD (nitrogen/phosphorus detector), GC-MS (mass spectrometry) and GC-FID (flame ionisation). Mark is also responsible for an important area of Rubber Consultants work entailing leachable analysis of pMDIs (pressurised metered dose inhalers) using SIM (single ion monitoring) GC-MS and GC-FID.

Finally Mark has developed a number of methods including extractable and leachable acrylonitrile monomer testing using the headspace GC-NPD, extractable PNA (polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbon) analysis by GC-MS and phthalate and bisphenol-A testing by GC-MS. He has also carried out desorption and pyrolysis GC-MS and will develop this further with the Consultancy’s purchase of a new desorb/pyrolysis unit for the GC-MS.