IN-SITU PHASE-ANALYSIS BY A VERSATILE MINIATURIZED MOSSBAUER SPECTROMETER

The element iron plays a major role in modern industries and technolog ies as for instance car-industry, mineral processing and steel product ion and power plants. For quality control, process monitoring and devi ce inspection (e.g., pipes in power plants) a fast, nondestructive and sensitive analytical method is desirable. Fe-57 Mossbauer spectroscop y is able to determine the different iron phases (e.g., oxides, sulfid es, nitrates, carbonates and carbides) and therefore would be the idea l tool to perform this job. We have developed a miniaturized backscatt ering Mossbauer spectrometer for space applications which will be modi fied and used for industrial applications under certain circumstances. The instrument is designed in a modular way which would allow to adap t it to different applications. The instrument has approximately the s ize of a soft drink can, a weight of about 0.5 kg, and a power consump tion of about 3 watts.