ANALYSIS OF INHOMOGENEOUS AND IRREGULARLY SHAPED SAMPLES BY THE USE OF XRF MICRO-BEAM CORRELATION-ANALYSIS

A quantitative method for micro-beam XRF was developed based on the an alysis of correlation graphs between the intensities from different fl uorescent lines. The method is capable of distinguishing chemical vari ations from those variations which are due to sample topology, The met hod was used to analyse irregularly shaped samples and accurate quanti tative results were obtained even from very irregularly shaped millime tre-sized glass fragments. The method can also be used for studying ch emically inhomogeneous samples. A simple mathematical model for fluore scent correlation is presented and a comparison is made with micro-bea m XRF measurements of different types of glass samples and fragments. Application to fly-ash samples is demonstrated.