Demo and teardown of an X-ray fluorescence gun (measures chemical composition)

I show how an X-ray fluorescence gun works, do a teardown and failure analysis, and discuss a new kind of XRF tech now "available" on eBay.

The two XRF guns in this video were generously donated by one of my viewers. Thank you!

[summarity]

UPS is very good at accidental "mechanical energy input"

[hobbified]

The secret ingredient is an HP iPAQ from 2004.

[AdamTheJensen]

"Little bit of a crack there, probably due to some mechanical energy input."
In layman's terms, "somebody dropped it."

[fastundercoverkitgoogle]

"I suspect that it's silver"
If only you had a tool that can analyze the composition of materials :P

Loved the video by the way

[ecliptix]

That bit at the end made me remember when I was a kid I got in trouble for wasting a whole box of band-aids. I discovered that if you opened the individual wrapping on the bandages in the dark, it would emit a glow so naturally I did it with all of them.

[bigclivedotcom]

Can these units also analyse saturated liquids?
That company effectively refused to sell you a device that would have resulted in over 100, 000 targeted adverts for their x-ray product.

[TheSethcoleman]

In college in the early 2000's I worked on a project using an XRF gun with some fancy software running on the PDA that would process and decode chemical barcodes. By mixing certain compounds in various ratios we could create decodable messages (complete with checksums). The project was working on using it for high security applications. Our proof of concept used some pretty heavy excel workbooks and lots of copy and pasting, but it worked!

[AtlasReburdened]

How delightful that it actually makes sci-fi sounds.

[Spirit]

The detector is likely either a Si-PIN photodiode, or if it's a more recent(/expensive) unit, it's an SDD - silicon drift detector. Beryllium window, multi-stage peltier cooled stack construction.

[cIimber]

Due to the geometry of the silver bit I suspect that it does not excites the silver to than let the silver emit x-rays, but that the silver does bragg refelction to filter out unwanted frequencies. This is the way you would do it to prepare your beam for an diffractometer or in Wavelength-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy to get only one frequency (at a time).

X-ray fluorescence can can lead you into rabbit holes if you use the wrong program for interpret the data. There are programs for use with alloy identification wich work fine for that purpose. But if you use them with things like minerals they might tell you some wrong numbers since some peaks are close together and the program rules one out because that element is not used in alloys and gives you the other.

[TheEurosere]

UV fluorescence is actually a bit of as different process than X-ray fluorescence. When a fluorescent material absorbs a photon with a specific energy, an electron within its outermost orbital is excited. Rather than being ejected and leaving the system entirely, the electron jumps from its current orbital to a higher energy one, with the energy difference between the orbitals corresponding to the energy of the photon absorbed. The electron can then relax back down to its original state by releasing a photon--this is light you seen when shining a UV light on a fluorescent object. Now, there often is not perfect overlap between the lower energy orbital and the higher energy one, so when a photon is absorbed and an electronic transition occurs, the molecule can become vibrationally excited as well. The energy used in the vibrational excitation is "wasted" and does not contribute to the energy of the photon emitted. This is why fluorescence produces light that is lower in energy (longer in wavelength, or "redshifted") than the light that causes the initial excitation. Hope this makes sense!

[hmauroy]

That silver piece at 13:35 is probably a monochromator crystal. Only certain x-rays with correct wavelength will scatter in the direction of the opening.
Love the video!

[KosmosHorology]

I've just taken a break from data analysing a bunch of XRF assay work, and this 30-minute-old video pops up! Thank you, internet!

[mw-pffy]

I worked at a company that made a competitive product to this. Brings back memories watching this teardown. The high voltage power supply is very straight forward and unique. Its a resonant design. We potted our power supplies.

[mlentsch]

Thrilling. I had no idea such a portable device existed. Now I need one.

[jimsvideos]

Positive material identification, what a wonder that has been to the engineering field. Discarding a few tons of low-alloy steel because you lost the MTRs is one thing, but when you get into the ritzy stuff one of these starts to look like a very good deal.

[MicahJKelly]

The best thing about this channel is that you don't treat you audience like they're idiots who don't know anything about science. It's so incredibly refreshing!
Keep it up!

[dojmike]

Thank you, and especially for mentioning the triboelectric effect. My first experience with a triboelectric charge occurred in the photo darkroom when I would unroll my 120 roll film in total darkness; when I pulled the adhesive tape holding the film to the spool to remove the film, I would see a faint bluish glow in the darkness where the adhesive was separating from the film. My friends and I thought this was so cool that we made other experiments with adhesive tape and substrates from which we would pull the tape and watch the effects. This also made a very interesting fog exposure on the film, and after it was developed and fixed, we could see the triboelectric light exposure that the effect made on the film. Thanks again!

[user]

When I was in high school many years ago I did a lot of photography and dark room work. One thing I noticed is that at the end of a roll of 120 film (2 1/4" x 2 1/4") there was some tape holding the end of the film strip to the plastic reel. When I pulled the tape off the film there would always be a green flash of light right where the tape was separating from the film. It never ruined any images as film is unwound and loaded into a stainless steel reel and then into the developing tank and the lid goes on before the lights are switched on, that is, the film is loaded in complete darkness so the tape glow was the only light in the room.

[Alexander_Sannikov]

I actually had almost the same (but black) HP iPAQ PDA. I was incredibly proud of it. It also used to run so hot that I used it as a hand warmer in winter, very convenient to use outside.