QEMSCAN - The QEMSCAN is the flagship instrument of the Camborne School of Mines' £1.5 million microbeam analytical facility. This also includes a state-of-the-art electron probe microanalyser and a low vacuum scanning electron microscope.
The QEMSCAN rapidly scans an electron beam over a sample and analyses the resultant X-rays to identify the mineral composition of the sample. Each analysis takes about 5 milliseconds allowing well in excess of a million individual points to be analysed every day. The system is also automated allowing 24 hour / 7 days per week operation. Data output includes mineralogical maps of the sample, information on grain size, shape and mineralogical association. Initially developed for the mineral processing sector, the QEMSCAN has proven so robust and versatile that it can be used to characterise virtually any inorganic material.
Applications include:
- Forensic Science
- Finger-printing soils, allowing an evidential link to be made between a suspect and a crime scene
- Environmental monitoring
- Characterising airborne particulates
- Mineralogical characterisation of contaminated land
- Minerals engineering
- Process design and control
- Characterisation of geological materials