Investigation Technologies

The table below lists technologies used to investigate contamination at brownfields sites and identifies the groups of contaminants analyzed by each technology.

Direct Sensing Probes:  Reliable direct sensing probes and other instruments have been developed to greatly enhance the quality of brownfields site characterization. The probes, which can be pushed or hammered into the subsurface in the field, are designed to collect real-time information that can support dynamic work strategies and decisions made in the field. The density of information provided by these probes makes them useful for high-resolution imaging of contaminant source areas and plume geometry. Several examples of direct sensing technologies are included in the table below (indicated by the icon).

Click on the name of a technology to view additional details. Click on a column heading to resort the table.

Technology	Explosives	Fuels	Halogenated SVOCs	Halogenated VOCs	Metals and metalloids	Nonhalogenated SVOCs	Nonhalogenated VOCs
Amperometric and Galvanic Cell Sensor				x	x		x
Anodic Stripping Voltammetry					x
Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy					x
Catalytic Surface Oxidation				x			x
Chemical Colorimetric Kits	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
Cone Penetrometer Testing	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
Detector Tubes				x			x
Electrical Conductivity Probe	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
Electromagnetic Conductivity					x
Explosimeter	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
Fiber Optic Chemical Sensors		x	x	x
Field Bioassessment	x		x	x	x	x	x
Field-Portable X-Ray Fluorescence					x
Flame Ionization Detector		x		x		x	x
Fluorescence Spectrophotometry					x
Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy		x		x			x
Free Product Sensors		x		x		x
Fuel Fluorescence Detector		x
Gas Chromatography/ Mass Spectrometry	x	x	x	x		x	x
Ground Penetrating Radar					x
Hydraulic Profiling Tool	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
Immunoassay Colorimetric Kits	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
Inductively Coupled Plasma-Atomic Emission Spectroscopy					x
Infrared Spectroscopy		x	x	x		x	x
Ion Chromatography					x
Ion Mobility Spectrometer	x	x	x	x		x	x
Ion Trap Mass Spectrometry			x	x		x	x
Laser-Induced Fluorescence (LIF) Probe (UVOST, ROST, TarGOST)		x
Magnetometry					x
Membrane Interface Probe with Electron Capture Detectors (ECD)				x			x
Membrane Interface Probe with Flame Ionization Detector (FID)		x					x
Membrane Interface Probe with Halogen Specific Detector (XSD) Detector				x
Membrane Interface Probe with Photoionization Detector (PID)		x		x			x
Near Infrared Reflectance/ Transmittance Spectroscopy				x			x
Photoionization Detector (PID)		x	x	x		x	x
Piezoelectric Sensors				x			x
Raman Spectroscopy/ Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS)		x	x	x		x	x
Room-Temperature Phosphorimetry			x				x
Scattering/Absorption LIDAR				x			x
Semiconductor Sensors				x			x
Soil-Gas Analyzer Systems	x	x	x	x		x	x
Solid/Porous Fiber Optic		x	x	x			x
Synchronous Luminescence/ Fluorescence		x	x	x		x	x
Thin-Layer Chromatography						x
Titrimetry Kits		x
Toxicity Tests	x		x	x	x	x	x
Ultraviolet Fluorescence				x		x	x
Ultraviolet Visible Spectrophotometry		x		x		x	x
Waterloo Advanced Profiling System	x	x	x	x	x	x	x