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Analysis of the Inorganic Constituents of Particles on a Particle‐by‐Particle Basis using a Computerized SEM‐EDS System
Author(s) -
Gomez Cesar O.,
Austin Leonard G.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
particle and particle systems characterization
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.877
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1521-4117
pISSN - 0934-0866
DOI - 10.1002/ppsc.19880050205
Subject(s) - particle (ecology) , scanning electron microscope , tracing , detector , analytical chemistry (journal) , particle size , sampling (signal processing) , materials science , ray tracing (physics) , optics , mineralogy , chemistry , physics , computer science , geology , chromatography , oceanography , operating system
This paper is based on the development of the Moza‐Austin technique for characterizing thousands of coal particles by approximate analysis of the major inorganic constituents Ca, Al, Si, K, Na, Fe and S in each particle. The technique has sufficient sensitivity to work on small volumes, is fast enough to handle large number of particles within a reasonable period of time, and consists of scanning electron microscopy combined with energy dispersive x‐ray spectrometry (SEM‐EDS). A computerized SEM‐EDS system that allows the automated analysis of hundreds of particles per hour is described. The analysis is based on the location and tracing of exposed areas of particles embedded in a polished specimen, the selection of sampling points on the traced sections, the collection of an x‐ray spectrum from each sampled point for a defined period of time, and the processing of the x‐ray intensity to calculate point composition using ZAF corrections. Procedures for correcting for dead time, spectrum background, x‐ray detector efficiency and spectrum overlap are described. Problems and future work are discussed.