COMPARISON OF THE DETERMINATION OF COPPER, NICKEL AND ZINC IN CONTAMINATED SOILS BY X-RAY-FLUORESCENCE SPECTROMETRY AND INDUCTIVELY-COUPLEDPLASMA SPECTROMETRY

Soil samples from a potentially contaminated site were prepared and an alysed for their copper, nickel and zinc contents by both inductively coupled plasma (ICP) spectrometry and x-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectro metry, Results obtained by XRF spectrometry were either comparable wit h or slightly higher than those obtained by ICP. However, when the res ults obtained by the two techniques were compared with the threshold v alues for contamination by the three metals, then each set of results led to the same conclusion with respect to the categorization of the s ite. Comparability between the two techniques was thus demonstrated an d either may be used to screen soil for phytotoxic metals.