Grazing-exit micro X-ray fluorescence analysis of plant

Professor K. Tsuji (Osaka City University, Japan) and his colleagues recently reported an interesting application of grazing-exit micro X-ray fluorescence to the analysis of a leaf of Camellia hiemalis. In their experiments, a polycapillary X-ray lens was used to observe a 30 μm area. Grazing-exit geometry was employed to enable the observation of the near surface of the plant. For more information, see the paper, "Grazing Exit Micro X-ray Fluorescence Analysis of a Hazardous Metal Attached to a Plant Leaf Surface Using an X-ray Absorber Method", T. Awane et al., Anal. Chem., 81, 3356-3364 (2009).