Polarized-beam high-energy EDXRF in geological samples

Certified reference materials (NIST 1645, BCR 143, IAEA 7, BCR 141, NIES-CRM-02, and IAEA 375) were used for determining the performance of a secondary target energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) spectrometer, Epsilon 5 (PANalytical, Almelo, the Netherlands). For the evaluation of the EDXRF spectra with polarized-beam high-energy excitation, the WinAxil software package has been applied. The results showed that Epsilon 5, EDXRF spectrometry is favorable for the determination of elemental concentrations in geological samples, but the sample preparation has the largest influence on the precision. However, they presented good agreement with certified values for most of the elements. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC