Notre Dame’s Center for Environmental Science and Technology (CEST) recently purchased a new x-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy instrument that significantly improves the center’s capabilities in surface chemistry analyses. The new installation builds on the analytical facility’s capabilities across chromatography, elemental analysis, and materials characterization, and supports CEST’s mission to foster interdisciplinary environmental research and education by providing access to and training on cutting-edge analytical technologies.
A non-destructive analytical technique, XRF detection gives researchers the ability to measure the abundance of chemical elements on the surface of solid samples without damaging them. A wide range of solid surfaces can be analyzed, ranging from rocks, soils, quantum dots, and even samples from museum paintings. The newly installed instrument, an Atlas Apex M by IXRF Systems, maps the distribution of elements on a surface or in a cross-section of a sample, and has applications for archeology, environmental engineering and science, and materials engineering and science, as well as nuclear chemistry, biology, and physics.
The Atlas Apex M is more sensitive than the facility’s previous XRF instrument and can analyze larger samples, in addition to being the only benchtop XRF on campus housed in a core facility.
“Our facility’s distinctive XRF capability brings together researchers from across many disciplines to conduct non-destructive elemental analysis, which is an important technique for research across the academy,” said Jeremy Fein, director of CEST and professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences.
CEST is also unique in that Notre Dame faculty, scholars, and students may use the instruments for class work and research without instrument-time charges. Each year, more than 200 Notre Dame researchers use instrumentation at CEST to advance their scholarship as well as to assist with course work, independent studies, and Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) programs.
“Our facility makes exploratory research more accessible since there’s less of a financial tradeoff in using the instruments,” said Jon Loftus, the center’s laboratory program manager. “We’re also able to spend more time on training, equipping students to tackle pressing research questions.”
At CEST, student researchers have complete control of their samples from sample preparation to data collection to analysis, and are invited to troubleshoot technical difficulties alongside the facility’s technicians.
“Students walk away with a deep knowledge of the instruments—how they work, the importance of troubleshooting and maintenance—not just the data,” Loftus said. “We’re able to train them as leaders in research with deep knowledge of ‘how,’ not just ‘what.’”
The new XRF complements the center’s elemental analysis instrumentation, which includes atomic emission spectroscopy and membrane inlet mass spectrometry; its capabilities in ion chromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography; and its materials characterization capacities, including flow cytometry and Fourier-Transformed InfraRed (FTIR) spectroscopy.
CEST also houses a stable isotope laboratory, which includes four isotope ratio mass spectrometers for isotope measurement of organic and inorganic compounds and aqueous samples. The recent addition of sulfur isotope analysis augments the laboratory’s existing capabilities in hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen isotope analysis.
“We’re excited to see how our colleagues across the University find creative ways to employ the center’s instruments in the service of their various research endeavors,” Fein said.
To learn more about the research services available at the center, please visit the CEST website.
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Originally published by at cest.nd.edu on August 18, 2026.