energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (electron microscope analysis) of uranium minerals

[ironnica]

Did I hear you say that any element under carbon don't show? Is there an easy way to explain this? Thanks

[bionerd23]

@ironnica

well, elements like carbon and lower have a low atomic number, meaning a low amount of protons, which again results in an equal number of electrons on the shell of the atom.

EDX is done by ionizing atoms, knocking out inner electrons, and then measuring the "jumps" as a higher electron fills a lower electron shell, in which the characteristic x-rays are emitted. lack of electrons, jumps arent as wide = no x-rays but merely light photons get emitted and cannot be detected.

[ironnica]

@bionerd23 Thank you!

[ironnica]

By the way, thank you also for the video

[ironnica]

Weird. n 4 years, I had never come across the K, L, M, N terminology. Just always referred to them as 1,2,3,4

[demonslayer1000]

you should stick a geiger counter into a microwave i always wondered what it would do

[bionerd23]

@demonslayer1000

it'd induce currents and fry the electronics, possibly also leading to a fire in a very short time. no idea if you could also make the geiger-mueller-tube explode, but yeah, i'm not gonna try this, as it's too expensive and i have no save place outside to do it.

[bionerd23]

@demonslayer1000

hey, but there's a channel where they try to microwave things, i've seen it! try and suggest it to them!

[cassiavc]

I am sorry for asking but...Are you a boy or a girl? Really really sorry for asking such as stupid thing...But i really wanna know.

[demonslayer1000]

@cassiavc shes a girl

[KarbineKyle]

AWESOME! THUMBS UP! I've always loved to learn on my own. School was a waste. The schools I went to were lame and full of thugs and idiots. I was treated poorly, and I wasn't challenged AT ALL! Anyways, I LOVE your videos! They're educational, and EXTREMELY well done! Plutonium-244 (T½ = 80 million years) can be found in VERY trace amounts in the Uranium ores. It's actually the heaviest primordial element. Have you ever come across Plutonium and daughter isotopes/elements in the Uranium ore?

[bionerd23]

@KarbineKyle

well, there *are* a few Pu-atoms in U-ore (and thus, their daughters as well), but i dont have any means of actually "coming across" them, i.e. being able to measure them (e.g. decay energies; and the EDX works only when 0,2%+ of the material are the element in question, which doesnt seem to be the case in the ore). but yeah, uranium sometimes undergoes spontaneous fission, and that releases neutrons... and if they hit an U-238 nucleus, Pu-239 is created after two beta decays. :)

[SilentNinjja]

your voice turns me on

[thegameglider]

:) it would be awesome for you to be a nuclear physicist....i mean your excellent in it lol great work you did on all those vids keep it up...bye

[10mintwo]

Just a note about Auger e-s. I, much like you, am largely self-taught with regard to science, and so I sometimes have my own "unique" ways of pronouncing weird stuff that I've only read about but never heard another person pronounce. I was talking to this scientist once about EDX and I pronounced it "aw-ger", like the drilling tool and he laughed at me (asshole, imo). I felt so stupid. It's actually French and pronounced oh-jjay or oh-shay. I don't mean to be condescending, just want to help!:)

[bionerd23]

@10mintwo

thanks for the info! but yeah, i guess i dont really care if people laugh about me, lol. if i get a fact wrong, however, that'd be a whole different story. ;)

there are many french words i use all the time (e.g. "curie" or just pretty common english words that they all stole from the french, anyway), and i guess i pronounce them all wrong. heck, i was even told i pronounce many english words wrong. i guess that's what you get from just reading stuff and never talking to anybody. :P

[AScannerClearly]

Sweet, very nice presentation. I understand it now better than before!

[jeriellsworth]

Great explanation!

[bayat]

Cool, I have the same pen!

[bojangles465]

reminds me of the calvin cycle

[amatomicX]

This is the first time I ever heard about subshells. Now I understand why the peaks are broader at the bottom on the spectrum graph :-) Thanks for posting and explaining this! (I didn't know they used a silicon x-ray detector either :P)

[bionerd23]

@amatomicX

yeah, you'll find a lot more info on this if you google for "electron subshells"!

well, that's as a general info for everybody, as i barely managed to stay within that annoying 15-minutes limit and couldnt explain or show as much as would've been necessary. grrr.

so yeah, everybody: google for "electron subshells" and for "characteristic x-ray" if you want to fill the "gaps" that this video might leave. and if you still have questions, dont hesitate to post a comment here! =)

[Phacias]

@bionerd23 Feel free to make a series of videos about a subject. :) I'd watch them with big interest.

[bionerd23]

@amatomicX

oh yeah, another one... the detectors are called "silicon drift detectors" to be precise, just in case you wanna look that up. :P

[amatomicX]

Thanks for the info, bn. One thing's for sure, those silicon detectors have amazing energy resolution, probably better than any scintillator / photomultiplier setup could provide ;)