Applications to the service

Firstly, the needs of the user will be discussed with the service team. This can either be done through email, telephone, virtual meetings or in person site visits. Once agreement has been made regarding the experiments, the capabilities and limitations of the equipment and the user requirements, a feasible study can be set up and a written confirmation shall be sent.  Please do not send samples without getting in touch first.

Sample submission 

Unless the proposed experiment is covered by a contract, the service requires users to complete a sample submission form, agree to the Terms and Conditions of the service and have an pre-agreed quotation for the work. Samples should be supplied with the relevant safety data sheets (SDS) and attached with the sample submission form.

Sample requirements

The experiment conducted at the facility are under transmission mode, therefore a known supply of sample is needed. The amount of sample needed can be agreed with the user prior to the experiment, though at most 200 mg of material would be needed.

Ideally, a weight loading of the element of interest of at least 1 wt% is needed, though this can be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

If sample requires to be in a particular environment (e.g air sensitive) or requirement a pre-treatment prior to XAFS/XES studies, please discuss with the service prior to the experiment.

Acceptance of samples 

The facility reserves the right to decline to measure samples: (i) on health and safety grounds, (ii) that may cause damage to instrumentation, (iii) if there is insufficient instrument capacity, or their because insufficient capacity due to e.g. a fault on the instrument. (We will take reasonable steps to let you know if circumstances change and we cannot run samples).

Results 

The results will be send to the user as a .prj (athena) files with an accompanying pdf to indicate the file name conventions / experiments by either email or a onedrive link unless otherwise agreed in advance. Original raw data can be acquired from the facility upon request. Further processing of the data is non-standard and should be discussed when first seeking a price for the work. 

For non-commercial use data and appropriate meta-data are to be placed in the Durham DRO- data repository.

Terms and Conditions, Privacy Notice and Order Forms

Analytical Services Standard Terms and Conditions

Privacy Notice Chemistry Analytical Services

DXAF academic user:  DXAF Academic Order Form

DXAF commercial user: DXAF Commercial Order Form*

*Individual DXAF service agreements can be made. Please contact the facility for more information.