Quantification of trace metals in adsorbents

Full text: Adsorbents are porous materials used to remove contaminants from water supplies. Presently, the quantitative trace metal analysis of adsorbents has been carried out using atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) and neutron activation analyses (NAA) despite these techniques having many inherent problems. We have used the technique of particle induced x-ray emission (PIXE) to overcome some of the current problems associated with the current techniques and compared the results against NAA and AAS. The results indicate that PIXE is capable of quantifying trace metals in adsorbents although some issues need to be resolved relating to the inhomogeneous internal structure of the adsorbent. Copyright (2005) Australian Institute of Physics