Find out how to determine material composition in just 1 minute

Scientists at the Russian National Nuclear Research University (MEPhI) have developed a new technology to directly analyze the elemental composition of material samples, without using a standard sample.

The process of analyzing any material is related to its elemental definition - that is, knowing the mass of elements of the periodic table in that sample.

Traditional methods require very long preparation to analyze the samples. In addition, scientists must compare samples analyzed with physical samples called standards, but using standard samples increases the cost of analysis. These are expensive models, their components are well known (eg copper alloys with certain impurities).

Russian National Nuclear Research University (MEPhI).

Scientists from the Russian National Nuclear Research University (MEPhI) propose a new technology - the device's operation program (mass spectrometer) to directly analyze the elemental composition of the samples of materials, without using standard samples. The research results are published in the European Journal of Mass Spectrometry.

This technology can be applied in many different areas - from the forensic field (in this industry the speed of determining ingredients is particularly important) to medicine (especially in the analysis of trace elements in Hair and nail ingredients). In addition, this method can improve accuracy in determining the composition of cross-border moving objects at stations and airports, or to speed up the determination of environmental conditions (optimization analysis process, for example, soil samples).

"Our work has the most obvious practical importance in potential projects, because on this basis it is possible to create very compact equipment to identify material components without using standard samples, and this device will have high sensitivity, high performance and therefore greater competitiveness " - Professor MEPhI said Alexey Sysoev.

The technology is called "material component analysis without the use of standard samples" - direct determination of the element composition, which does not require the analysis to be performed in parallel with the standard samples that the component of They are known.

This method involves improving laser mass spectrometry. According to scientists MEPhI, the advantage of the new analytical device is the ability to use different forms of energy, compact size, and minimum requirements for energy sources. Among other advantages, the scientists noted the ability to analyze all substrates, the purity of the method, the ability to analyze locally and layer by layer. It should be noted that this method greatly reduces the cost of a device and each analysis.