Question about metal analysis

[miner1436]

Ok, so I have a piece of metal and I want to know the exact composition, like %iron, %nickel, % copper etc.. Does anybody have an idea of what type of business does this? Is it possible to do it without chipping/filing metal bits away?

Thanks in advance.:yeah:

[Gotland]

Hmm it might be hard without touching the metal. If you could afford to remove a very small sample of the metal, then there are many methods to determine composition. Assuming the composition is uniform throughout the metal.

Most methods involve spectroscopy, atomic absorption spectrometers, for example, are very well suited for detecting small amounts of different metals dissolved in a liquid. In high school i used one to determine cadmium levels in tomatoes :)

For that you probably need to contact companies who deal with chemical analysis, or better yet, nearby universities/college's chemistry departments.

Depending on the metals involved, you could dissolve a sample of the metal in acid, and titrate to determine concentration of a certain metal present. Possible to do at home if you have measurement equipment and glass ware, but probably need to sacrifice some metal do that.
I determined iron content of a razor blade once that way, by dissolving it in acid and titrating with permanganate.
Ofc, that also requires some basic chemical knowledge, so that may be out of question.

I would recommend contacting a neabry chemistry department at a college, they certainly would know what to do, and might even analyse it for a small price.

[Hakahura]

Another option, do you know anyone who works in the Aerospace Industry/ Airport/ Maintenance?

All gas turbines have their oil sampled and analysed to monitor for component breakdown. These guys can determine from the smallest partical what a metal is composed of. (And by extension which component is failing inside the engine)

If you've got any contacts there's an avenue you could go down.

[nikimcbee]

I can do this analysis:yeah:. What you need is an EDX.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy-dispersive_X-ray_spectroscopy

I would need a small piece though. A small shaving or something along those lines.

[nikimcbee]

Where is your metal coming from?

[nikimcbee]

You might also want Auger analisys done, but I don't do that. The best part is, there are no chemicals involved.