Some trends in researches in the field of the energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence analysis

The applicability of protons with energy of several MeV/s polarized radiation, the effect of X-ray complete external reflection, coincidence circuits, etc. is discussed in the short review of papers on energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence analysis. The conclusion is made that the sensitivity - the important characteristic of any analytical method - is not always determinant. For example, sensitivity of 10-4-10-5% is as a rule sufficient for analysis of trace contents in biological objects. Some high-sensitive energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence analytical methods do not give high results because of harmful impurities contained in sample substrate-carriers. Thus each analytical task has its own optimum sensitivity