Quantitative Analysis of 300 and 400 Series Stainless Steel by Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence

Abstract

Recent developments in analytical techniques and software have allowed the accurate quantitative determinations of both the major and minor elements in stainless steels by energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence. The successful analysis of 300 and 400 series stainless steel is reported utilizing this technique. The analysis of this type of material represents one of the most severe tests of the method due to numerous peak overlaps and interelement effects such as absorption and enhancement.Sixteen standards of ASTM 300 series and ten 400 series were prepared by polishing on a 220 grit aluminum oxide belt and subsequently washing the surface in absolute methanol. Analyses were performed with an EG&G ORTEC 6110 Tube Excited Fluorescence Analyzer utilizing a dual anode (Rh/W) x-ray tube. Peak deconvolutions and interelement corrections were made with a 16K PDP-11/05 computer utilizing the program FLINT (1). Utilization of spectral deconvolutions and interelement corrections yields a relative accuracy of approximately IX of the concentrations of the major elements.

Computer Procedure for Resolving Overlapped Peak in X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry

“…Particular problems can arise due to interelement effect, spectral line overlap, sample grain size and associated mineralogical effects [1][2][3][4][5][6].…”