Discovering the Limits of Fusion Bead Shattering and becoming Cloudy in Various Sample Compositions

Abstract

This presentation focuses mainly on preparing quality beads (glass discs) for X-ray fluorescence Spectroscopy (XRF) measurements from samples of various sources and analytical errors caused by limitations of experimental methods. Shattered beads are impossible to perform high resolution XRF analysis on and inhomogeneous (cloudy and/or chipped) beads lead to incorrect and misleading results. General concepts and tips are widely available on this topic, however element specific concentrations and their limits in preparation of quality samples have not been well addressed. A detailed and systematic study on number of shattered and/or cloudy beads from various source of samples will be presented. The results presented are supported by data acquired through WD-XRF, X-ray diffraction (XRD), iTRAX Core Scanner and ICP-MS as necessary.