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Detection limits evaluation of a portable energy dispersive X‐ray fluorescence setup using different filter combinations
Author(s) -
Pessanha Sofia,
Samouco Ana,
Adão Ricardo,
Carvalho Maria Luisa,
Santos José Paulo,
Amaro Pedro
Publication year - 2017
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.2737
Subject(s) - benchmark (surveying) , detection limit , filter (signal processing) , spectrometer , analytical chemistry (journal) , tube (container) , x ray fluorescence , trace (psycholinguistics) , energy (signal processing) , fluorescence , matrix (chemical analysis) , x ray , materials science , chemistry , optics , physics , mathematics , engineering , chromatography , electrical engineering , composite material , statistics , linguistics , philosophy , geodesy , geography
In this paper, we study the performance of a portable energy dispersive X‐ray fluorescence spectrometer by making use of different filter configurations at the X‐ray tube output. To fulfill this purpose, we systematically investigated how the detection limits (DL) can be improved by applying three different combinations of filters (Al, Cu and Al + Cu) between the X‐ray tube and standard reference materials of different average‐ Z matrices. The obtained results were compared with the DL obtained with a benchtop system with triaxial geometry, considered the benchmark in detection of trace elements in a variety of sample matrices. The major differences occurred for the low‐ Z matrices, reflecting the increase of DL for elements with emission energies between 5 and 15 keV using filters. Regarding the high‐ Z matrices, the use of filters did not render an effective improvement in the DL but had a positive effect in diminishing sum peaks that could hinder the evaluation of some elements. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.