ELEMENTAL ANALYSIS USING RADIOISOTOPE EXCITED X-RAY-FLUORESCENCE

The measurement of energies and intensities of fluorescent X-rays emit ted from a given material when atoms are bombarded with suitable proje ctiles like electrons, protons, or-particles or photons has been succe ssfully used for non-destructive elemental analysis. Use of radioisoto pes as a source of exciting radiation in combination with high resolut ion semiconductor detectors in X-ray fluorescence has found wide appli cations in elemental analysis. Energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence is useful in multi-elemental analysis, and thus finds a wide variety of applications. A radioisotope excited X-ray fluorescence spectrometer c onsisting of a 30 mm(2) x 3 mm Si(Li) detector having a resolution of 200 eV at 5.9 keV coupled to a System 100 Canberra multichannel analys er has been used. A side source geometry using 20 mCi Cd-109 source to gether with PC AXIL software have been used for the study of environme ntal and geological samples in Botswana. (C) 1997 Elsevier science Ltd . All rights reserved.