X-Ray Diffractometry

Simple crystalline material analysis provides a basic qualification based analysis. This analysis provides an answer to the question 'What is this material?'

Materials that are a good fit for crystalline analysis include bulk clays, minerals, environmental samples, scales, coating components, pharmaceutical components and many dry industrial chemicals.

Included in all XRD analysis is EDS from the SEM. EDS provides the elemental distribution by mass of a given material. By combining the results of these technologies you benefit from a much higher degree of ACCURACY.

The only limitation to this analysis method is that the material must be crystalline. If you are not sure your material is crystalline in nature, Scanning Electron Microscopy can assist.

Some materials are both crystalline and amorphous. SEMx provides amorphous quantification when required as a part of the standard analysis.

Refined analysis is produced using Rietveld Refinement. In most samples, Rietveld Refinement produces a fully quantified result. In addition to knowing what the material is you will have a full description of the components by percentage.

Scale, mineral, pharmaceutical, environmental, coating and industrial material analysis greatly benefits from Rietveld Refinement. Clays less so depending on the type. Rietveld Refinement is included in many of the analysis SEMx performs at no additional cost.

There are some material analysis that cannot be refined by Rietveld Refinement because there are no pattern matches available. SEMx will help you determine if your material falls into this group.

Oil & gas and mining operations need to know what clays are in the strata they are drilling and extracting from. Oriented clay analysis releases the clay from the surrounding material to allow for crystalline analysis.

SEMx uses USGS standardized processes for sample preparation including Micropore separation and glycolysation to deliver the best possible analysis.