Determination of small amounts of aluminum in iron and steel by x-ray fluorescence analysis

The accuracy of X-ray fluorescence analysis for determining aluminum in steel is generally poor when the aluminum content is below 0.1%. In this study, it is confirmed that the existence of inhomogeneous acid-insoluble aluminum causes the poor accuracy of X-ray fluorescence analysis. The accuracy can be improved by adding granular ferro-zirconium to molten steel when sampling. By using this method, the accuracy of determining aluminum was 0.0024% for low alloy steels and 0.0022% for stainless steels as the standard deviation obtained for a series of differences between an analytical result and a standard value. Corrections for overlapping of the chromium spectrum, and for absorption and enhancement effects of co-existent elements are not necessary for the analysis of low alloy steels, whereas these corrections are necessary for the analysis of stainless steels. (author)