The new Total Reflection X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometer S4 TStar® – a real alternative to ICP

S4 TStar^® is a new and unique total reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF) spectrometer for ultra-trace element analysis in a broad range of application fields, including pharma, food and environmental monitoring. The S4 TStar^® was specifically designed to meet the growing demand in increasingly regulated areas, such as the detection of metal contamination or monitoring of catalyzer elements in pharmaceutical production according to the new EU and US Pharmacopeia standards, new product development and quality control in the food industry, including traceability and verification of raw materials in globalised supply chains, or control of contaminants in wastewater, slurries and effluents.

The S4 TStar^® features up to three different X-ray excitation modes and a high performance, large area XFlash^® silicon drift detector (SDD) to ensure extremely low limits of detection for all elements from sodium to uranium.

The automatic sample changer offers a total capacity of up to ninety samples which can be loaded using up to ten sample trays. Depending on the application, dedicated trays are available for different kinds of reflective sample carriers, such as quartz discs, microscope slides, or silicon wafers. This unique flexibility, in combination with very modest requirements on sample preparation, make the S4 TStar^® a most versatile tool for the analysis of a multitude of sample types, including solutions, suspensions, solids, wafers, cell cultures, smears and thin sections.

The unique SampleCare^TM concept of the S4 TStar^®, featuring a reduced internal air flow, a special integrated sample housing and stackable storage boxes, constantly protects the samples from contamination during preparation, transport and measurement to preserve high data quality.

The S4 TStar^® is designed for continuous 24/7 multi-user operation in industrial routine analysis and supports automated batch processing as well as unattended operation, e.g. overnight. The software allows the definition of crucial thresholds or confidence limits and provides warnings, if critical limits are exceeded. The S4 TStar^® is also the first TXRF spectrometer that automatically runs QC routines in the background, utilising internal QA samples, to monitor and stabilise crucial system parameters.

With the significant improvements in detection limits, combined with automatic QC routines, powerful software options, and the unique versatility in terms of sample types and carriers, the S4 TStar^® sets new standards in performance, automation and quality of benchtop TXRF spectrometry and can be considered an efficient complement, or a real alternative, to ICP-OES or ICP-MS.