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

i had my uranium (and other minerals) analyzed under a scanning electron microscope by means of energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy! \o/
i tried to keep it simple as i explained the physics behind that method, but i somehow think it still sounds very confusing. =(
sorry about that, i hope you'll still find this video entertaining and of some educational value!

oh yeah, and you can also see all graphs and images in high quality on my flickr photostream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bionerd/sets/72157625329862751/

ALSO, if this video isnt in-dept enough (sorry... i hardly managed to stay within that annoying 15-minutes limit, anyway!), google for "electron subshells", "characteristic x-ray" and "energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy"!

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• uranium
• scanning
• electron
• microscope
• metallography
• energy
• dispersive
• x-ray
• roentgen
• analysis
• mineral
• radioactive
• metal
• uran
• radioactivity
• finding
• nature
• SEM
• characteristic
• x-rays
• raster
• scan
• topography
• sample
• EDX
• EDS
• periodic
• table
• elements
• arsenic
• thorium
• uraninite
• pitchblende
• mineralogy
• geology
• science

[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.

[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!

[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. :)

[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]

@cassiavc shes a girl