The types of analyses that can be performed by ACME include:
Soil, sediment and rock analysis
ACME has a range of general analytical and sample preparation methods for rock, sediment and soil materials. Our sample preparation facilities can accommodate drying, sieving, crushing and grinding to suit the required analytical techniques, including:
- cation exchange capacity and exchangeable cations
- total carbon, nitrogen and sulphur analysis
- mineralogical and clay mineralogical analysis
- particle size analysis
- selective extractions
- fluoride analysis
Geochemical analysis
ACME has a range of digestion and sample preparation techniques for multi-element analysis of soil, sediment or rock samples using Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) or ion chromatography (IC). Preparations include:
- sample fusion for total element(major and trace) analysis
- Aqua-regia digestion for near total elemental analysis
- Total digestion using hydrofluoric acid
- selective extractions designed to dissolve specific mineral phase(s)
- multi-element analysis can be performed on extracted solutions using ICP-OES or ICP-MS
- multi-anion analysis can be performed on extracted solutions using IC
- fluoride analysis can be performed on extracted solutions using potentiometry
- spectrophotometry can be performed for specific analyses
Mineralogical analysis
ACME performs non-destructive X-ray diffraction analysis on powdered samples to confirm the mineralogy of a solid. We also conduct quantitative phase analysis by applying the Rietveld method to powder diffraction data. Spiking with known standards can allow the measurement of percentage crystallinity also.
Water analysis
ACME performs a wide range of analyses of water. Analyses of interest may include: