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Applications of a Portable Radioisotope X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometer to Analysis of Minerals and Alloys*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

J. R. Rhodes  and
T. Furuta
J. R. Rhodes
Affiliation:
Texas Nuclear Corporation Austin, Texas
T. Furuta
Affiliation:
Texas Nuclear Corporation Austin, Texas
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Abstract

A portable, battery-operated X-ray fluorescence analyzer weighing 15 lb is described, consisting of a Nal(Tl) scintillation-counter probe and an electronic unit with a single-channel pulse-height analyzer and reversible scaler. Radioisotope X-ray sources are used for excitation of the sample and, where necessary, balanced filters for resolution of neighboring characteristic X-rays. Emphasis has been placed on designing and producing an instrument that is easy and convenient to operate in laboratory, factory, or field conditions and that can equally well be used to measure extended surfaces, such as rock faces, or finite samples in the form of powders, briquettes, or liquids. The feasibility of the following analyses has been studied by using for each determination the appropriate radioisotope source and filters: sulfur in coal; calcium and iron in cement raw mix; copper in copper ores; and vanadium, chromium, molybdenum, and tungsten in steels. Detection limits, based on counting statistics obtained in count times of 10 to 100 sec, range from 0.03% for copper in ores to 0.2% for sulfur in coal. Both matrix absorption and enhancement effects were encountered and were eliminated or reduced substantially by suitable choice of source energy, by the use of nomograms, or by semiempirical correction factors based on attenuation or scattering coefficients.

Type
Research Article
Information
Advances in X-Ray Analysis , Volume 11: Sixteenth Annual Conference on Applications of X-ray Analysis, August 9-11, 1967 , 1967 , pp. 249 - 274
Copyright
Copyright © International Centre for Diffraction Data 1967

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Footnotes

*

Work supported by the United States Atomic Energy Commission, Division of Isotopes Development.

References

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