Portable and Handheld Spectroscopy

The continuing pace of technological advancements in scientific instruments has recently led to a wide range of commercially viable portable and handheld instruments, and the Raman spectroscopy market is no exception. While security applications have received much of the early attention in relation to handheld instruments, other applications are beginning to replace demand from the security markets.

The concept of portable mass spectrometry has been around for some time, but the realization of such technology has been largely limited until very recently. More than ever before, recent technological advances now make smaller, lighter, and more effective mass spectrometers possible. Such advances will lend themselves to a growing spectrum of applications as well.

Near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy has become one of the more widely utilized analytical methods for both laboratory and process applications as a result of its ability to characterize a wide range of compounds, and the relative ease with which samples can be analyzed. These characteristics are now leading to the rise of the market for handheld and portable NIR instruments.

Guest author John Coates describes handheld measurements performed using a palm-sized device that can be used either as an open-ended spectrometer or as a dedicated analyzer.

Although X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) has long been a tool of the laboratory, the past few years have seen a meteoric rise in the use of handheld XRF units for applications in which a portable unit can increase the speed and efficiency of the testing process. Some years ago, handheld instruments required the use of radioactive materials to provide a source of X-rays, but the development of low-power X-ray tubes has enabled this market to flourish by removing any apprehension about using regulated materials.

The authors review the science and technology of the latest generation of hand-held x-ray spectrometers and their analytical capabilities in alloy analysis.