CSC acquires portable X-Ray Fluorescence unit

“We were fortunate to be awarded the grant through EPSCoR and to be awarded a 20 percent matching grant through the CSC Research Institute,” Tibbits said.

Thanks to the support, the Geoscience program purchased an Olympus Vanta XRF unit.

Tibbits explained that the unit ejects an X-Ray that excites the electrons. The atoms in the material being analyzed emit a specific light. The unit reads and displays the specific light frequencies that correspond to a specific mineral or element. The XRF can produce precise and accurate chemical data in less than a minute.

“Our unit has two different levels of energy which provides a better picture. It lets us see a wider spectrum of elements on the periodic table. It's really good feature to have when you are looking at unknowns,” Tibbits

The unit is safe for students to use because the X-Ray is focused on the object being analyzed and when it is not touching a sample, the unit powers down. Leite and Tibbits also purchased a benchtop stand that has a lead-lined chamber to analyze materials in classroom or lab settings.

Leite took the pXRF unit to Field Camp this summer where Kaitlyn Smith of Hackberry, Arizona, collected rocks and data for her Capstone II course research.  

During this academic year, Brady McDaniel of Chadron and Rowdy Pfeil of Moorcroft, Wyoming, will use the pXRF unit to analyze items in CSC collections.

“Rowdy is going to analyze and confirm identifications on our meteorite collection. He's going to make sure our irons are iron and our stony irons are, in fact, stony irons,” Tibbits said. “Brady is going to look through some collections in the museum and make sure we understand a bit more about what we've got and check that we have everything correctly identified.”

Tibbits used a pXRF unit during her dissertation in Belize. 

“It was one of the cornerstones of how I was able to analyze granite. Compared to the old method of grinding up the stone, doing all sorts of time consuming and expensive sample prep, and waiting for results from a distant lab, we can now find out data almost instantly and leave the material intact, if needed,” she said. “Within seconds you can get a full chemical output on any solid material. This unit is very accurate.”

Tibbits and Leite have plans to expand use of the pXRF unit, sharing it with faculty and students in the Rangeland program.

“It can produce good results on soil cores and soil samples starting at magnesium and running all the way up through uranium,” Tibbits said.