Renishaw's structural and chemical analyser (SCA) provides new analytical techniques for scanning electron microscopes (SEM). For many years energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDS) has been the default in-SEM analytical technique, and whilst it can provide fast and accurate data from any samples, it can only provide elemental information about the sample being analysed. For materials applications, assumptions about stoichiometry may enable accurate characterisation, but in most Instances “chemistry by guesswork” does not provide an acceptable solution. Furthermore, EDS is rather insensitive to light elements - atomic number 11 (sodium) and below, which severely limits its applicability to organic chemistry and life sciences.