Spectro Analytical has announced the availability of the Spectro Xepos energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer for demanding applications.
The compact, bench-top unit rapidly determines elements from sodium to uranium in samples as diverse as waste oils, minerals and contaminated land, with low detection limits.
The Xepos combines an excitation system comprising of closely coupled, optimised excitation by target geometry, and a silicon drift detector (SDD).
A choice of up to eight polarising and secondary metal targets gives optimal excitation for the application.
This results in high sensitivity together with low background signals, which improves detection limits.
A 50W X-ray tube allows the use of preferred spectral lines, even for heavy elements.
The SDD, which does not require liquid nitrogen cooling, has good spectral resolution at high count rates for reduced measuring times and improved accuracy, coupled with good signal-to-noise characteristics, again contributing to improved detection limits.
The software and user interface have been developed to make this analytical power easily accessible to the user.
Only three steps are needed to perform a routine analysis using a stored method, and only five to create a new one.
For unknown samples, Spectro Analytical has developed Turboquant, an expert system package that automatically calculates and corrects for matrix effects.
The detection limits achievable with Xepos have made it especially popular for environmental analyses like screening soils for contamination by heavy metals, or the measurement of sulphur, chlorine and trace metals in waste oils.
This ability is essential in techniques like chemostratigraphy, used in oil exploration to correlate oil and gas reservoirs.
