TERRA Portable XRD System
The Terra Mobile XRD System, a high performing, completely contained, battery operated, closed-beam portable XRD, provides full phase ID of major, minor and trace components with a quick XRF scan of elements Ca - U. Its unique, minimal sample prep technique and sample chamber allow for fast, in-field analysis.
The Terra Field Portable X-ray Diffraction/X-ray Fluorescence is, simply put, the evolution of X-ray diffraction analysis. The technology used in the portable rock and mineral analyzer received a prestigious R&D 100 award and was chosen to fly on the Mars Science Laboratory Rover scheduled for launch in 2011. Check out the NASA site for more.
The Terra is the first truly portable combination XRF/XRD system designed specifically for rock and mineral analysis. Now field XRD work can really be done in the field. The Terra can be configured with everything you need to acquire and analyze diffraction data in a rugged compact case. With a patented sample handling system, not only is sample preparation time minimized, but accuracy in peak identification previously only available using laboratory-based systems can be achieved.
Learn more at: https://www.inxitu.com
Key Features/Benefits
• Self-contained instrument - battery operated
• Very simple sample preparation
• loose powders (~20mg of sample)
• sieve sample to <150µm
• Easy to use, single button operation
• True 2D powder XRD instrument
• provides image of XRD pattern
• see particle influences or prefered orientation
• Energy discrimination X-ray detector
• Eliminate Fluorescence, scatter and other background
• XRF spectral data for pattern confirmation
Typically, XRD experiments require a finely ground sample which is then pressed into a pellet. This requirement is formed by the need to ensure sufficient random orientation of the crystals in the sample. Terra introduces a patented new way of addressing this issue. With only 15 mg of sample, Terra convects the sample with its integrated sample vibration chamber. By doing so, Terra is able to present all different orientations of the crystal structure to the instrument optics. This results in a superb XRD pattern, virtually free of problematicpreferred orientation effects found using more classic preparation methods.
Terra Search/Match & XRD Quantitative Analysis Software
Terra is configured with the necessary software (XPowder) for processing the resulting X-ray diffraction data. This includes the AMSCD mineral database. Should the user wish, XPowder provides the ability to use the ICDD Powder Diffraction Files (PDF).
For quantitative analysis, XPowder comes complete with Relative Intensity Ration (RIR) quantitative analysis methods as well as full pattern analysis tools. Further, Terra provides XRD pattern data in a variety of file formats making XRD pattern interpretation in other third party programs easy and available.