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Composition Measurement

Composition measurement generally refers to the identification and quantification of the constituents present in a material.


A full range of equipment and techniques in the market are capable of providing compositional information. However, selecting the appropriate technique requires addressing the following questions:


  • What constituents are you looking for? Are they single elements or molecules?

  • Is identification sufficient, or is an absolute quantity measurement required?

  • Is this a surface, bulk, powder, or thin-layer analysis?

  • If it is a thin-layer analysis, what is the order of the layer thickness of interest?


Once the appropriate testing technique(s) have been identified, proper sample preparation may be necessary if direct measurement is not possible. Sample handling procedures, such as resizing, cross-sectioning, brittle fracturing, grinding, chemical digestion, dissolution, and solvent extraction, are common practices that must be carried out by experienced technicians.

Relevant techniques:

Surface Anlysis:

  • AES
  • ToF-SIMS
  • XPS/ESCA

Bulk Analysis:

  • GC-MS
  • ICP-AES

Thin Layer Analysis:

  • AES
  • Dynamic SIMS
  • EDS/EDX
  • FT-IR
  • Raman
  • XPS/ESCA