New polymeric candidate reference materials for XRF and LA‐ICP‐MS—development and preliminary characterization

Abstract

AbstractA set of ten calibration materials based on acrylonitrile‐butadiene‐styrene terpolymer (ABS) containing the elements Br, Pb, Cd, Cr, and Hg was produced in order to control polymer samples in regard to the restriction on the use of certain hazardous substances (RoHS) directive. The materials were produced with respect to the special demands of X‐ray fluorescence analysis (XRF) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry in combination with laser ablation (LA‐ICP‐MS).The mass fractions of all elements were 0–1500 mg/kg and the materials were produced as granulates and solid discs with a diameter of 40 mm and thicknesses of 1, 2, and 6 mm. It could be shown that the signals measured by XRF strongly depend on the thickness of polymeric samples.Macroscopic homogeneity was assessed with XRF measuring a total of 180 samples. The microscopic homogeneities were determined for a material with average elemental mass fractions with the aid of synchrotron radiation (SR) µ‐XRF and LA‐ICP‐MS. Sufficient macroscopic and microscopic homogeneities for all elements could be achieved. It was observed that organic additives show a better homogeneity than oxides.XRF and LA‐ICP‐MS were successfully calibrated with the new materials. Limits of detection were in the range of 0.4–22 mg/kg for XRF and 2.3–26.8 mg/kg for LA‐ICP‐MS. The materials are considered as candidate reference materials (RM) by the Federal Institute of Materials Research and Testing (BAM, Germany). Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.