Spring is in Hand with Bruker pXRF
This year sees Bruker launching innovative hand-held XRF technology for soil analysis, agricultural development and also at micro levels of horticulture and individual plant development.
At a primary level, Bruker’s XRF technology can scan and analyse soils, terrains and planned building plots for material composition and can instantly provide evidence of contaminants or a clean bill of health. The trend – for the conversion and redevelopment of existing ‘brown field’ sites (that were once industrial) is therefore a key market for would-be developers and construction firms.
In a more positive fashion, Bruker XRF technology – as captured in the company’s S1 Titan handheld device – can also assist farmers to screen their soils for evidence of nutrients and any contaminants such as toxic metals – and act accordingly.
The most accurate and precise XRF results for soil samples are achieved with lab-like sample preparations. Methods such as the US EPA Test Method 6200 and norms like EN 15309:2007 and ISO 13196:2013 provide guidance for direct soil, and lab-like prepared soil measurements. In this way, farmers are able to create soil nutrient maps and take action when soil additives may be needed.
Bruker’s XRF technology is also playing a leading role in the development of plant analysis and culture: XRF methods are being used around the world to help farmers increase crop productivity; helping monitor the plant mineral accumulation and predict disorders such as ‘bitter pit’.
Portable XRF spectrometers provide the compositional analysis of plants in the field while TXRF spectrometers enable ultra-low elemental detection limits of plant tissues.
Micro-XRF spectrometers provide compositional analysis and the ability to map the elemental distribution in a plant. The ability to see nutrient rich locations and monitor their mobility provides data-based evidence of plant biosystem optimization.
Bruker has made every effort to ensure that users of the S1 Titan are on the right side of sustainable technology.
The S1 TITAN utilises SharpBeam technology – the net effect of which is to reduce power consumption and increase battery life. The secret is all in the design, whereby the detector and tube geometry has been optimised.
And because the S1 TITAN is portable and non-destructive, a user can take the device on site to analyse the sample (soil, leaf, or stem), and then keep the samples intact (safeguarding the natural resources) and can also eliminate the need to transport samples to a lab – thus cutting the transportation emissions.