EMMAC: Micro-Analysis

The Edinburgh Materials and Micro-Analysis Centre (EMMAC) exists to provide integrated and interdisciplinary facilities for the application of microbeam techniques to material analysis.

The facilities are concerned with micron-scale investigations of the chemical composition, atomic structure and surface texture of both natural (mineral) and synthetic materials. Virtually all chemical elements and isotopes, in major or trace amounts, may be analysed with the available instrumentation.

A summary of Facilites and applications can be seen in the Poster here:

Emmac-Poster (499.41 KB PDF)

The  instruments concerned are housed in the Grant Institute of the School of GeoSciences on the King's Buildings Campus of the University. The combined instrumentation and facilities have  been extensively upgraded with a NERC-administered JIF grant and a EPSRC grant (both awarded in 2000-2001, 2014) and funds from NERC for the Cameca 7f-Geo in 2018.

Analytical techniques and instruments available are: ·

• Ion Microprobe Analysis (SIMS) - Cameca ims 4f, Cameca ims 1270 and Cameca 7f-Geo. ·
• Electron Microprobe ( EMPA) - Cameca SX100 ·
• Scanning Electron Microscope ( SEM) - Carl Zeiss SIGMA HD VP Field Emission SEM and Oxford AZtec ED X-ray analysis and Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) system

The combined SIMS, EMPA and SEM facilities in the School of Geosciences are supported by NERC and are the UK centre for Ion Microprobe Research in the Earth Sciences. Further information may be found under Facilities on the School of GeoSciences website.

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