Recent advances in nuclear and atomic spectrometric techniques for trace element analysis. A new look at the position of PIXE

Abstract

The principles, instrumentation and methodological aspects of several nuclear and atomic spectrometric techniques for trace element analysis are briefly described. These techniques are nuclear activation analysis, mainly neutron activation analysis (NAA), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), including total reflection XRF (TXRF) and synchrotron radiation XRF (SR-XRF), atomic emission, atomic absorption and atomic fluorescence spectrometry (AES, AAS and AFS), and atomic mass spectrometry, in particular inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Recent advances and new trends in each technique are indicated. The various techniques are intercompared with each other and with particle-induced X-ray emission analysis (PIXE), and this is done from a number of viewpoints, including cost of the instrument and/or price per sample analyzed, speed of analysis, sample type and sample mass required for analysis, capability for multielement determinations, accuracy and detection limits. Particular emphasis is placed on assessing the present position of PIXE, and it is indicated for what sample types and/or analytical problems PIXE offers significant advantages over the other techniques.