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Quantitative analysis of individual particles by x‐ray microfluorescence spectrometry
Author(s) -
Lankosz M.,
Pella P. A.
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.1300240608
Subject(s) - microbeam , range (aeronautics) , particle (ecology) , materials science , matrix (chemical analysis) , mass spectrometry , x ray , particle size , analytical chemistry (journal) , optics , computational physics , physics , chemistry , composite material , chromatography , oceanography , geology
A fundamental parameters method using polychromatic x‐ray microbeam excitation was developed and applied to the quantitative analysis of individual particles from 50–160 μm. From the ratio of the projected area of a particle to the cross‐sectional area of the microbeam, an effective portion of the microbeam irradiating the particle can be determined and used to correct the measured x‐ray intensities. Because particles in this size range may not be infinitely thick and may contain unmeasurable elements such as C and O, calculation of the average mass thickness of the particle allows complete matrix absorption corrections to be made. For this purpose, the ratio of coherent to incoherent x‐ray tube target lines scattered from the particle was used to calculate the average atomic number of the particle, and its mass thickness was determined from incoherent scatter. A parametric equation was derived and tested. In addition, irregularly shaped particles were analyzed using a well known equation usually applied to flat samples having intermediate thickness. Both models were tested with homogeneous glass particles of known composition and size.