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Comparison of emission–transmission and elemental sensitivity Methods for determining the trace element content of biological samples
Author(s) -
Somogyi A.,
Pázsit Á.
Publication year - 1995
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.1300240409
Subject(s) - trace element , analytical chemistry (journal) , attenuation , certified reference materials , sensitivity (control systems) , absorption (acoustics) , attenuation coefficient , transmission (telecommunications) , content (measure theory) , elemental analysis , materials science , chemistry , optics , environmental chemistry , chromatography , mathematics , detection limit , physics , metallurgy , composite material , computer science , telecommunications , mathematical analysis , electronic engineering , engineering , organic chemistry
Two widely used concentration calculation techniques, emission–transmission and elemental sensitivity methods, were compared. In the determination of the trace element content of environmental materials (e. g. plants, soil), the mass absorption coefficients for the exciting and characteristic x‐rays are dominated of the ‘non‐detectable’, light major components. When using the elemental sensitivity method, these mass absorption coefficients must be a known a priori . When using the emission–transmission method, the combined attenuation of the incident and fluorescence x‐rays within the specimen for the i th element is determined experimentally. The trace element content of biological materials was determined with both methods and the concentrations obtained were compared by t ‐test and one‐way analysis of variance methods. In the case of available reference materials the concentration values obtained with these methods were compared with the certified values.