XRF Meeting - "Blanket cover" 12^th May 2010,

ABSTRACTS:

10:00 From water-mills to wind-turbines
Margaret West, West X-Ray Solutions

A retrospective talk on the last 25 years of XRF, showcasing the range of X-ray techniques and equipment that have been introduced. It seems that size matters; the smaller the better.

10:30 Analysis of airborne particulate matter on filter samples by XRF techniques - where we have come from and where we are going
Owen T Butler, Health and Safety Laboratory

The health of workers in many industries is at risk through exposure by inhalation to metal containing particles in workplace air and occupational hygienists need to determine the effectiveness of measures taken to control such exposure. This is generally achieved by making personal exposure measurements, the accuracy of which relies heavily upon the availability and use of validated measurement methods. XRF, at face value, would seem to be the ideal measurement technique as sampling consists of capturing a thin layer of airborne dust on a filter sample. This presentation will summarise the work carried out at HSL and elsewhere, over the last twenty years, using this measurement technique and the strengths and weaknesses of this approach will be assessed. Ongoing work at HSL will then be outlined and the presentation will conclude on how advances in XRF instrumentation could assist future aerosol measurement campaigns.

11:00 X-Ray Spectroscopy of Amorphous Bioceramics - A User Friendly Technique for Analysing Challenging Materials
Colin Slater¹, Danielle Laurencin², Victoria Burnell¹, Mark E. Smith², Joseph A Hriljac¹, Liam M. Grover³ and Adrian J. Wright¹
1. School of Chemistry, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT
2. Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL
3. School of Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT

The characterisation of amorphous or poorly crystalline materials presents a significant challenge to materials chemists and of fundamental importance in initial studies is the determination of composition and stoichiometry of synthesised materials. X-Ray fluorescence spectroscopy offers a routinely available method for quick and accurate analysis, without the need for access to national laboratory facilities and when coupled with other routinely available techniques such as vibrational spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and variable temperature X-Ray diffraction, composition and significant structural detail can readily be determined.

We report here the synthesis and detailed characterisation of amorphous group II metal pyrophosphates of stoichiometry M₂P₂O₇.xH₂O (M=Mg, Ca, Sr) and our ongoing work to systematically study their properties and uses as bioceramics.

11:30 Urban Mining and Bench-top XRF, A Preliminary Investigation
Richard Morris, Morris Analytical X-ray

The term "Urban Mining" conjures up many interpretations, from recycling rusty pushbikes found in the canal to extracting gold from old PC's.
This MSc. project concerns itself with an investigation into the analysis of roadside dust. Can the low concentrations (~1-2ppm) of Pt expelled by car exhaust catalysts be measured quickly by bench-top EDS XRF?

13:30 Presentation of Industrial Group Award to David Taylor
Followed by his talk - My 40 years in X-ray Analysis

I started work at Pilkington in 1963 when float glass was in its infancy and development work was ongoing to fully exploit the process at production scale. It was 1970 before I became full time in X-ray analysis as a shift leader in an expanding XRF department. My talk will follow a timeline through the 40 years since then, exploring some of the work I was involved with along the way. This talk will concentrate on my XRF work although there were periods when XRD was my predominant role. I retired from Pilkington in 1998 and since then have been involved in the field as a consultant and spent 10 years part time in a method development role at St Helens College.

14:00 Scintillation Counter Linearity - Essential for Blanket Coverage of Elements Heavier than Copper
Steve Davies, PANalytical

The scintillation counter is the preferred detector for approximately 50% of the elements commonly analysed by WDXRF. Improvements in the performance of the detector will lead to improvements of measurement of half the elements of interest to users of WDXRF. This presentation will show those improvements, and how they add to the increase in the tog value of the blanket coverage of the elements by WDXRF.

14:30 Rapid Scanning for Elemental Distribution Using a High Intensity Capillary X-Ray Source
Mike Dobby, Bruker AXS.

μ-XRF is the method of choice for non-destructive elemental analysis of inhomogeneous, irregular shaped samples or even of small pieces or inclusions with high sensitivity. The concentration of excitation radiation on the smallest sample areas using capillary X-ray optics permits analysis with excellent spatial resolution at a high speed. All types of materials can be analysed with the minimum or even without, any preparation at all. The applications shown will demonstrate some of the capabilities of this technique using an instrument that combines these new technologies.

15:30 Is the Euro really as good as they claim?
A semi-quantitative analysis of 2-Euro coins from different countries
Bruno Vrebos, PANalytical B.V., Almelo, the Netherlands

In January of 1999, the Euro has been introduced in 12 countries in Europe (Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain). Several other nations have since joined as well. The Vatican, Monaco and San Marino have adopted the Euro as a consequence of their pre-existing currency unions with member states. The Euro is currently the single currency of over 300 million Europeans.
Although there is an independent central bank (European Central Bank), the printing and minting of the banknotes and coins is not done centrally. Many European countries have their Euro coins minted at their own (former) national mint. The question then arises if these coins are all made from the same base alloy?
In this work, the inner part of the 2 Euro coins has been analysed using energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry.

16:00 Question & Answer Session.
Introduced by an overview of the use of fundamental parameters (FP) calibrations in XRF
Ros Schwarz, EPSRC KTA Development Hot House Scientist - Analytical Measurements, Research and Innovation Services, University of Sheffield.

The fundamental parameters (FP) approach to extracting analytical results from intensity data is used across all XRF platforms, from hand-held ED-XRF to laboratory-based WD-XRF. This talk will give a personal overview of FP strengths and weaknesses and question its role as a portmanteau solution to every problem. Generally the analyst turns to FP in circumstances that are less than ideal, for samples where preparation is difficult and when reference materials are sparse.

The discussion will then be opened to the meeting floor to contribute to this topic or any others that may be raised. Questions on problems with individual applications are particularly welcome.

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