5th April 2023

BCA SPRING MEETING 2023 – INDUSTRIAL GROUP XRF SESSION

The Industrial Group of the BCA usually organises a standalone X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) meeting every year. This year, in an attempt to bring the XRF community closer to the rest of the BCA industrial community it was decided to dedicate one of the IG sessions to XRF. There were three speakers in this session.

The keynote speaker was Professor Paul Bingham of Sheffield Hallam University who spoke on XRF analysis of feldspars and silicate glass: effects of melting time on fused bead consistency and volatilization. Fused beads are a common way of sample preparation for XRF as it produces homogenous samples by mixing with a flux material and then heating in a furnace. This mixture melts and cools to produce a sample. However, it should be noted that the heating time can affect the XRF results for fused beads. If the heating time is too short the sample may not form a homogenous mixture and crack on cooling. The longer the heating time the greater the chance of volatile components of the sample leaving the sample. Variation of fused bead melting times showed changes in XRF analyses of a number of Certified Reference Materials.  

John Austin (SciMed - Stockport) then gave a talk entitled A comparison of Energy-Dispersive (ED) and Wavelength-Dispersive (WD) X-Ray Fluorescence spectrometers which provided an overview of these two types of spectrometers. Energy Dispersive XRF spectrometers rely on detectors to separate and resolve differing X-Ray energies to understand the composition of a sample. Wavelength Dispersive XRF spectrometers utilise X-Ray diffraction to separate X-Rays according to their wavelength prior to detection, using specialised crystals. This presents different approaches of non-destructively quantifying sample composition based on the XRF signals detected. The optical pathways of the two techniques are compared – X-Ray tubes, sample presentation, resolution, and detection. The application of the techniques, along with advantages and disadvantages of their usage were shown.

Finally, Archibald Harris (Bruker UK - Coventry) presented a talk on Using XRF for rapid elemental analysis QC in Food and Feed demonstrating the many applications of XRF spectroscopy in the food industry, such as its use in quality control, identifying traces of toxic elements and the identification of raw materials. Many different examples were given into how and why to use XRF to the best advantage.

Links to presentations by the 3 speakers.

• Paul Bingham

• John Austin

• Archibald Harris