Retsch have enhanced their comprehensive range of mills and grinders with the XRD-Mill McCrone that was specifically developed for sample preparation to X-Ray diffraction analysis. Typical areas of application include geology, chemistry, mineralogy and materials science.
What makes this mill so effective is the unique grinding action: the grinding jar contains 48 cylinders that pulverise the sample very gently by friction. As a result the crystal lattice structure of the sample is largely preserved which is an important precondition for obtaining meaningful X-ray diffractograms. Further advantages are short grinding times, virtually no sample loss and exceptionally narrow particle size distributions.
The grinding vessel consists of a 125 ml polypropylene jar fitted with a screw-capped polyethylene closure. The jar is packed with an ordered array of forty-eight identical cylindrical grinding elements which are available in agate, zirconium oxide or sintered corundum. For optimum micronisation the mill is operated for periods of 3 to 30 minutes; the recommended sample volume is 2 to 4 ml.
Adapted from press release by Joseph Green