Energy-dispersive x-ray fluorescence of metals—a simple fundamental parameters approach

Abstract

The merits of energy-dispersive x-ray spectrometry with secondary target set-up applied to the multi-element analysis of thick metallic specimens, are investigated. A number of measuring characteristics are examined. In the method corrections for matrix effects calculated according to the fundamental parameter technique, are utilized. Calculations are done by a computerized iterative procedure. The influence of primary energy radiation and secondary fluorescence is discussed. Thin film standards are used for standardizations. Several reference materials, for which the composition varies over a wide range, are analysed to test the accuracy of the method. For most elements accuracies better than 10% are obtained.