This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will demonstrate rapid, nondestructive, quantitative analysis of trace-level toxic elements in both substrates and coated layers for consumer products in a device fit for purpose on a factory floor. Restrictions such as the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA) are expanding world wide beyond lead to include additional harmful elements at trace levels. The analyzer will provide manufacturers the means to conveniently test their products, raw materials, and components for compliance with the new standards. Currently, there is no practical method to accurately test outside of a lab. The objective is to construct an analyzer for quantifying ten toxic elements at or below regulated levels. The analyzer will use XOS's world-leading x-ray optics to produce multiple monochromatic beams from a single x-ray tube, providing excellent sensitivity, lower limits of detection, and short measurement times for the entire relevant part of the periodic table. It will include advanced software for processing the combined data sets and separating the results for the coatings and substrates. The low-power consumption, reduced maintenance, and compact design are fit for purpose in manufacturing, distribution, or regulatory environments.
The broader impact of this research is the mitigation of inadvertent exposure risk. Toys and other consumer products will be safer as adults and children are protected from toxic elements. American manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and regulators are facing increasing global regulations restricting hazardous substances in manufactured products with associated costs and liability risks. This new testing capability would reduce testing costs by more than 75%, currently more than $1B, compared to existing laboratory-based methods. It would also assist U.S. manufacturers and distributors in cost-effective compliance by testing before the products leave the plant or distribution center, thereby, gaining or preserving their competitive position and avoiding the loss of sales and jobs due to offshore migration of manufacturing. This analyzer will also enable manufactures to safely explore new materials as a substitute for restricted materials. Consumer fears provide U.S. manufacturers an opportunity to increase market share if they can demonstrate safety. Additionally, the societal benefits for consumers are significant. Consumers can be certain the products they buy are safe. The ability to accurately detect toxic elements will help to reduce their proliferation into the marketplace and improve public health. This enables improved quality of life and a reduced health care burden.
High Definition X-Ray Fluorescence (HDXRF) is an elemental analysis technique often used to detect toxic elements like lead in toys and consumer products. It is distinctly different from other XRF techniques due to its Doubly Curved Crystal (DCC) optics that provide optimal spatial resolution and monochromatic beams to improve instrument sensitivity. This technique enables rapid results, high accuracy, and small spot size. Other benefits of HDXRF are that it is easy to use, non-destructive to the products, versatile, and can be used outside the lab. Another important beneit of HDXRF is that it provides elemental quantification in the coating and substrate separately. Multiple DCC optics capture X-rays from a divergent X-ray beam emitted from the tube and the optics redirect several select and narrow energy regions into an intense and focused beam on the surface of the product. By selectively using multiple monochromatic excitation beams, ranging from low to high energy, HDXRF allows the user to quantify toxic element concentrations for both the coating and the base materials separately. Using monochromatic excitation HDXRF eliminates the scattering background under the fluorescence peaks, greatly enhancing elemental detection limits. Since this technique applies focused excitation beams, an analysis area on the sample of 1 mm diameter is achieved without reducing the analyzer’s sensitivity. Conventional XRF techniques obtain spatial resolution by using collimators to reduce the beam size, therefore greatly reducing flux and sensitivity.
