The nuclear microscope: A review of applications in the environmental sciences

Abstract

It is only recently that nuclear microscopy has been applied in different fields of environmental science, for example studies of single airborne particles and analysis of concentration depth profiles in shellfish, tree rings, ancient ice, etc. A review of a number of environmental applications is given with the emphasis on analysis of single aerosol particles. The results are briefly compared with the results of other microanalytical techniques such as electron microprobe and laser microanalysis. Possibilities for optimization of experimental setup and also some problems still existing in quantitative analysis of nuclear microscopy images are discussed. © 1995.