Empirical Relations for Matrix Effects in Synthetic Thick Samples Comprising Low Z Elements

Abstract

In x-ray fluorescence, matrix effects disturb the proportionality between characteristic x-ray intensity of an element and its amount in the sample. To find relations for matrix effects of thick samples comprising low Z elements, the absorption term1 for selective analyte ‘a’ x-rays and enhancement term1 for analyte ‘c’ x-rays in the presence of enhancer a in the sample are experimentally evaluated and empirically correlated with elemental amounts in a category of samples. The correlations are independent of measured x-ray counts.