As I have discussed in the last chapter, our goal here is not to elucidate XRF for the entire scientific community – this has been done admirably by others – but to translate the physics, mechanics, and art of XRF for those in archaeology and geoarchaeology who use it as one of the many tools to explain the human past in twenty-first century archaeology. While not a simple exercise, it has util...

Handheld X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (HH-XRF) has been established as the gold standard method for in-situ elemental determination in metals and alloys in the last 10 years. More than 5,000 analyzers are sold yearly worldwide for scrap metals sorting and positive material identification (PMI). PMI is a quality assurance tool consisting of the identification of alloy grades in various indust...

A novel XRF sample preparation method was investigated to quantify the concentration of gallium in plutonium metal and minimize the possibility of contaminating the instrument with radioactive material. To prepare homogenous specimens and to add an internal standard, the plutonium must first be dissolved. The currently established method then entails removing the plutonium by chromatography and...

Lead exposure is widespread among industrial populations in the United States. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis of the lead content of bone offers a promising approach to acquisition of individualized data on chronic lead absorption in occupationally exposed populations. Dosimetric data obtained by XRF will permit accurate definition of dose-response relationships for such chronic consequences...

One of the latest developments in X-Ray Fluorescence Analysis (XRF) is 3D micro-XRF by means of two confocally aligned X-ray optics. Fig. 1 sketches the principle of this type of experimental setup. The foci of two X-ray optics, one in the excitation channel and the other in the detection channel, overlap and define a probing volume. This is typically demonstrated by scanning through the probin...

Stained glass paint layers made with vitreous paints can be a challenging subject for analyses. Their heterogenic structure requires proper experimental methodology in order to obtain valuable data. The main goal of this paper is present the advantages macro-XRF scanning (MA-XRF) non-destructive investigation historical grisaille on basis research conducted seven stained panels from Dominican M...

A study was undertaken to determine if laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) can be a practical and competitive alternative to X-ray fluorescence (XRF) methods for lead-in-paint inspection. Experiments in the laboratory confirmed that LIBS is suitable for detecting lead in paint at the hazard levels defined by federal agencies. Although we compared speed, function and cost, fundamental di...

The application of electrochemical X-ray fluorescence (EC-XRF), for the detection of palladium (Pd) contamination in a range of solutions containing electrochemically active compounds, present in excess and relevant to the pharmaceutical and food industries, is reported. In EC-XRF, EC is used to electrochemically pre-concentrate metal on an electrode under forced convection conditions, whilst X...

The X-ray fluorescence spectrometry and the MA.BM.006 reference spectrophotometric methods were used to determine the content of SiO2 (%) in bauxites from different deposits. The treatment of samples prior to the analysis involved the following steps: annealing, melting using the borax method,  and the formation of beads. Certified reference bauxite samples were used for the cali...

A non-invasive XRD/XRF instrument for study of works of art has been developed jointly by the Getty Conservation Institute and inXitu Inc. (California). Many aspects of the instrument are based on technologies initially developed for NASA’s planetary XRD/XRF instrument CheMin and used in inXitu’s portable transmission XRD/XRF instrument (Terra). A new geometry was designed based on a reflection...