The discovery of X-rays and their interaction with matter more than a century ago revolutionized many fields in research and everyday technologies. X-rays can be used to image nonvisible objects like bones in living organisms, cracks in metallic welds, etc., due to their low and matter dependent absorption. However, a better control of the X-ray – matter interaction gives us more sophisticated tools to analyze unknown material. Wealthy business sectors are built upon such well-established X-ray based analytical methods like X-ray diffraction (XRD) or X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), which provide detailed information on the atomic structure and elemental composition, respectively. The market size of these methods reach €700M/year and €1.5B/year respectively, including the Pharma, Biotech, Chemical, Waste Recycling, Mining, Food, etc. industries. In this line, high-energy-resolution X-ray spectroscopies (HERXS) provide the most detail-rich way to examine physical and chemical properties of materials and have been used for more than three decades by scientists all over the world.
However, the market for using HERXS was non-existent until the very recent years, as these frontier analytical tools were considered to be applicable only at costly large-scale X-ray source facilities (like €1B cost synchrotrons or X-ray free electron lasers) with limited and restricted access. The usage of these methods with lab-size X-ray tubes were thought to be unfeasible.
A prominent application is the development and utilization of novel catalyst materials fulfilling the ever more important requirements of sustainability, environment-friendliness, ethical and economical adequacy. Lab-scale HERXS is an excellent option to expand their analytical toolbox on developing e.g. novel Pharma-related active agents with new, green and economic catalysts, follow reaction routes and understand both formulation mechanisms of the active molecules as well as their mode of action.
LynXes has created desktop-sized HERXS devices that provide detailed analytical results comparable to billion-euros-cost large-scale facilities but at a fraction of the cost. This breakthrough allows wider accessibility to HERXS for researchers, scientists, and industrial development teams of various sectors such as green chemistry, pharma, waste management, data storage, but most of all, in producing and storing green energy. LynXes has diverse use cases spanning industrial R&D, academia, and in the long-term, quality control in production. It enables companies to strengthen their R&D potential, improve product development, and achieve cost savings in product quality control. Universities benefit from on-site access to HERXS techniques, enabling them to educate students, establish productive academic-industrial collaboration, and contribute to large-scale facilities' utilization. Although this also creates a good business opportunity for us, the main benefit will be the early engagement to LynXes technology.
