Researcher

Piet Van Espen

Research Expertise:- Chemical and morphological characterization of microscopic objects via scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDX, EPXMA): * study of particle populations (powders), e.g. 1000 particles with diameter between 0.1 and 10 micron * Gun shot residue analysis in forensic applications * investigation of materials (fracture surface, corrosion products¿) with a spatial resolution of 1 micron. - Chemical analysis of high purity materials (>99.9%) with spark source mass spectrometry (SSMS). Refractory elements like Mo and W can be analyzed for some 75 elements in the ppb concentration range without sample pretreatment. - Surface analysis via secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). - Interpretation and modeling of chemical data using robust variants of partial least squares (PLS and tri-PLS). - Monte Carlo simulation of the interaction of electrons and photons with matter. - Characterization of x-ray detectors and gamma-ray spectrometry.

Keywords:MICRO ANALYSIS, CHEMOMETRICS, SURFACE ANALYSIS, X-RAY SPECTROMETRY, PARTICLE ANALYSIS, Chemistry (incl. biochemistry)

Disciplines:Analytical chemistry, Ceramic and glass materials, Materials science and engineering, Semiconductor materials, Other materials engineering, Pharmaceutical analysis and quality assurance

Research techniques:Electron probe x-ray microanalysis (EPXMA) - JEOL 7300 Superprobe Scanning electron microscopy with x-ray analysis (SEM-EDX) - JEOL 6300 Dynamic en static secundary ion massa spectrometry - Cameca IMS 3F - Cameca ION-TOF IV spark source mass spectrometry - JEOL JMS-01BM-2 Energy-dispersive x-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF): - Panalytical Epsilon V - Philips Minipal X-ray and gamma-ray spectrometry - various detectors (SiLi, HPGe, Si-PIN¿) and measuring chains Software - Matlab, EGS4, MCNP, PENELOPE

Users of research expertise:Responsible in industrial research and production laboratories Developers of new materials and procedures Developers of x-ray analysis equipment Forensic researchers