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Application of benchtop micro-XRF to geological materials

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Stephanie Flude ,
Michael Haschke  and
Michael Storey
Stephanie Flude*
Affiliation:
Quaternary Dating Laboratory, Environmental and Spatial Change, Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark
Michael Haschke
Affiliation:
Bruker AXS, Berlin, Germany (Retired)
Michael Storey
Affiliation:
Quaternary Dating Laboratory, Environmental and Spatial Change, Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark
*
*E-mail: sflude@gmail.com
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Abstract

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Recent developments in X-ray optics have allowed the development of a range of commercially available benchtop micro-XRF (μ-XRF) instruments that can produce X-ray spot sizes of 20–30 μm on the sample, allowing major- and trace-element analysis on a range of sample types and sizes with minimal sample preparation. Such instruments offer quantitative analysis using fundamental parameter based 'standardless' quantification algorithms. The accuracy and precision of this quantitative analysis on geological materials, and application of micro-XRF to wider geological problems is assessed using a single benchtop micro-XRF instrument. Quantitative analysis of internal reference materials and international standards shows that such instruments can provide highly reproducible data but that, for many silicate materials, standardless quantification is not accurate.Accuracy can be improved, however, by using a simple type-calibration against a reference material of similar matrix and composition. Qualitative analysis with micro-XRF can simplify and streamline sample characterization and processing for subsequent geochemical and isotopic analysis.

Keywords

micro-XRFgeochemical analysispetrographyelement mappingquantification
Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 81 , Issue 4 , August 2017 , pp. 923 - 948
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
© [2017] The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2017

Footnotes

†

Present address: School of Geosciences, The University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

§

Present address: Quadlab, Natural History Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark.

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