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Quantitative electron probe microanalysis of carbon in binary carbides. II —data reduction and comparison of programs
Author(s) -
Bastin G. F.,
Heijligers H. J. M.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
x‐ray spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.447
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1097-4539
pISSN - 0049-8246
DOI - 10.1002/xrs.1300150213
Subject(s) - carbon fibers , carbide , binary number , analytical chemistry (journal) , absorption (acoustics) , gaussian , materials science , line (geometry) , computational physics , mathematics , chemistry , physics , metallurgy , algorithm , computational chemistry , arithmetic , geometry , chromatography , composite number , composite material
The performances of four current matrix correction programs have been tested on a data file of measurements on 13 binary carbides between 4 and 30 kV. Both the metal lines as well as the carbon Kα line have been measured, which resulted in 145 k ratios for the metals (relative to elemental standards) and 117 integral k ratios for carbon Kα (relative to Fe 3 C). Evidence is presented that the existing sets of mass absorption coefficients for carbon Kα radiation are perhaps not fully consistent and a new set is therefore proposed, which is in better agreement with the experimental results. Finally, it is shown that the modified Gaussian ϕ(ρz) approach, when used in conjunction with the new set of mass absorption coefficients, leads to unexpectedly good results, with a relative root‐mean‐square value of 3.7%. This demonstrates that even for carbon very good accuracy can be obtained, provided that proper care is exercised in the measurements and the proper procedures are followed.