Classification of microheterogeneity in solid samples using µXRF

Abstract

Micro X-ray fluorescence (µXRF) has been used nondestructively to investigate elemental heterogeneity by constructing two-dimensional maps of elemental concentrations in reference materials. µXRF probes sample sizes well below the 100 mg mass usually recommended for reference materials by NIST. Multivariate methods of analysis, such as principal-component analysis (PCA), show promise in identifying whether “nugget” effects exist within a material, where an element is enriched in small, isolated areas of the sample. The PCA model is built based on data taken in one location and compared with each elemental map. This methodology is shown for several reference materials including SRM 2702 and SRM 2703 to show how PCA treatment can be used to identify which elements exhibit nugget effects within the sub-mg mass range. A method of calculating the minimum recommended mass for solid samples is suggested using PCA iteratively on X-ray maps from which adjacent data points have been averaged. This is repeated until the mass sampled in a map is indistinguishable from data taken at a single location, suggesting no nugget effects can be detected. For SRM 1577c, a mass as low as 370 µg can be used without measurable nugget effects.