This part of ISO 16232 describes a method for determining the nature of contaminant particles by identifying their elemental chemical composition using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) in combination with a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The contaminant particles are extracted from automotive parts or components and deposited on the surface of a membrane filter. In addition to the number and size of particles as described in ISO 16232-7, this measurement gives the elemental composition of the particles analysed.

This information can be used to classify the particles into likely material groups ¹⁾.

This method cannot determine the nature of organic material ²⁾.

The analyses can either be carried out manually or fully automatically, provided the appropriate equipment is available.