Quickstart Guide

This guide introduces how to use AutoEMXSp for typical workflows:

  • Identify how many phases you have in your sample, and measure their compositions via SEM-EDS

  • Fit and optionally quantify a single EDS spectrum to evaluate the model performance

  • Measure the particle size distribution in your sample via SEM

  • Quantify the extent of intermixing of precursors prior a solid-state reaction

Warning

If this is the first time AutoEMXSp is run on your microscope, note that there are a few steps required to set it up before AutoEMXSp can be properly run. Refer to Advanced User docs.

Warning

Ensure the EDS detector is periodically recalibrated for optimal EDS quantification. See EDS Detector Calibration.

Workflows

AutoEMXSp comes with a selection of scripts (located at autoemxsp/scripts/) that require a minimal set of user-defined parameters for running:

EDS compositional analysis for phase identification

Run the Run_Acquisition_Quant_Analysis.py script (Tutorial):

With one click, AutoEMXSp handles the full workflow from EDS spectral acquisition and quantification, to rule-based filtering of the quantified compositions and unsupervised machine-learning analysis to identify the different phase compositions in your sample.

See full workflow at:

A. Giunto et al., Harnessing Automated SEM-EDS and Machine Learning to Unlock High-Throughput Compositional Characterization of Powder Materials, 2025.

(https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-7837297/v1)

Fit and quantify a single EDS spectrum

Run the Fit_Quant_Single_Spectrum.py script (Tutorial):

Fit–and optionall quantify– a single EDS spectrum. This script prints the full process in the terminal, the employed fit parameters and their final values. It also shows the fitted spectrum for manual evaluation of goodness of fit.

Measure particle size distribution via SEM

Run the Collect_Particle_Statistics.py script (Tutorial).

Have AutoEMXSp collect multiple images, detect particles, and quantify their size distribution.

Quantify the extent of intermixing in precursor powders

Run the Run_Acquisition_PrecursorMix.py script (Tutorial):

Use EDS to evaluate the extent of spatial intermixing of different precursor powders, known to affect the output of solid-state reactions. AutoEMXSp offers a method to quantify the intermixing, helping the rationalization of impurity formation in solid-state reactions. See for example Fig. 6 in:

Chem. Mater. 2025, 37, 6807−6822 (https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.chemmater.5c01573)