Determination of effective atomic numbers and mass attenuation coefficients of samples using in‐situ energy‐dispersive X‐ray fluorescence analysis

Abstract

The matrix effect has a major impact on energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence analysis (EDXRFA) and is difficult to be evaluated due to that the contents of some low-atomic-number elements cannot be identified by in-situ EDXRFA.Up to today, the fundamental parameter algorithm proposed by Rousseau has been widely applied to correct the matrix effect. Accordingly, determining the matrix and mass attenuation coefficient (μ/ρ) of sample is a key issue for the fundamental parameter algorithm. In present work, the method to deduce μ/ρ by effective atomic number (Z eff ) was studied. First, the relationship between Z eff and coherence to Compton scatting ratio (R) of the incident X-ray was determined by standard samples. Then, we deduce Z eff and their μ/ρ. The value of μ/ρ deduced by our method is in good agreement with that calculated by WinXCOM, and the relative change (Δ) is less than 7%. We also deduced Z eff and their μ/ρ of Chinese national standard soil samples employing our method and good agreement with the calculated values were also obtained. We found that the agreement between experimental values of μ/ρ with theoretical values by WinXCOM still exists when the energy of the incident X-ray is greater than 4 keV, and the Δ is less than 10%. The result indicates that our method may be applied directly to in-situ EDXRFA.

Determination of Sr to Ca ratio in solid carbonate, fluoride, and nitrate samples using the fundamental parameters of EDXRF: experimental and empirical evaluation of non-destructive assays in light matrices

“…7,8,11 The applicability of the XRF intensity ratio method to other types of samples is restricted by the presence of signicant amounts of elements with Z < 11, which are difficult to determine due to various fundamental and technical limitations. 5,14,[17][18][19] Elements not detected by this technique are termed light/transparent/undetected elements in the XRF parlance. A major problem related to the high contents of these light elements is the absorption of primary and uorescent radiation, which is difficult to account for.…”

“…Accordingly, one way to overcome the above-mentioned limitations is to utilize the dependence of the intensity of the scattered primary radiation on the concentration of the undetected elements and average atomic number of the specimen. 14,17,[19][20][21] The application of the existing XRF techniques using scattered radiation is rather limited given that they provide satisfactory accuracy only if the specimens are analyzed close to the reference samples by composition and morphology.…”

Determination of binary systems based on light elements by the ratio of the Compton and Rayleigh scattering intensities

“…The uniqueness of this method lies in the fact that it is suitable for the rapid identification of elements with a small atomic number down to hydrogen ( Z = 1) with tables . Recently, the ratio of Compton and Rayleigh scattering intensities has been used in solving both fundamental problems of determining the effective atomic number and mass absorption coefficients and applied problems of adjusting the composition in the XRF analysis, and also for determining the fraction of light elements in the sample bulk and the distribution of light elements along its depth . In our previous work, it was shown that the dependence on the atomic number can be used as a calibration function for identification of single‐component and binary materials in certain ranges of effective atomic numbers Zeff .…”