inXitu’s Field Portable XRD Now Available for Hazardous Material Identification

Mountain View, CA, December 05, 2009 --(PR.com)-- The challenge of quickly identifying suspected hazardous materials has now become easier with the introduction of the inXitu Terra field portable x-ray diffractometer. In particular, the instrument and associated technique is ideally suited for the rapid identification and quantification of crystalline powder material. Available databases can identify several hundred thousand minerals, compounds and phases, making this tool uniquely well suited for positive identification of suspected hazardous materials.

inXitu Inc. is a leader in portable XRD/XRF based instrumentation specializing in developing the technologies required to enable the next generation of scientific instruments used for materials analysis. The technology used in its 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.

The powder handling methods can dramatically improve the quality of XRD data while reducing the requirements for sample preparation. inXitu’s patented technique makes possible quality XRD data to be collected regardless of the grain size of the sample. Grain sizes up to 400 um have been tested producing data normally obtained with micron size particles.

Incorporating key technologies from its portable XRD instrument and advanced sample handling techniques, inXitu has developed solutions targeted for identification and analysis in the areas of explosives, pharmaceuticals, forensics, art and archaeological materials. This new line of instruments offers performance comparable to laboratory XRD systems with the benefit of ease of use, significantly reduced sample preparation and reduced cost of acquisition and operation.

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