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The identification of the dust occurs in several stages, of increasing
sophistication. The first step is
to examine it petrographically, using low to medium-powered microscopes, of the
type available in most high school and college science departments.
We find that examination under reflected light is usually more
informative. It helps if you are able to take digital pictures through your
microscope, for the purposes of comparison with images of dust presented on our
web-site and elsewhere (See Dust Images
section of this web-site.) Under
FAQ’s we list a vendor that sells a reasonably priced microscope.
The second stage consists of carrying out more detailed
analysis of samples. Here the
tools of choice are scanning electron microscopy (SEM) for a higher
magnification image and X-ray fluorescence
(XRF) or related procedures for a determination of the chemical
composition of the dust. Many
college and university science departments have these kinds of analytical
tools, and often arrangements can be made with them for getting analyses.
Under Dust Images we also
include SEM and XRF data for selected samples.
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