Chemical speciation of chlorine in particulate matter by wavelength-dispersive PIXE technique

Chemical speciation of chlorine (Cl) in atmospheric particulate matter (APM) was performed by using a wavelength-dispersive PIXE spectrograph based on high-resolution measurement of Cl-Kβ emission. Samples of atmospheric particles were size-fractioned and collected by a cascade impactor at an urban area in Tokyo. The target position with respect to the spectrograph was precisely adjusted by a 2D laser displacement sensor to achieve high detection efficiency. The samples were irradiated with 2 MeV protons from a tandem electrostatic accelerator. The beam current was 300–500 nA. During the irradiation, the target was cooled by liquid nitrogen to avoid the evaporation of volatile Cl compounds. The measured spectra for the NaCl standard samples clearly showed the Cl-Kβ series composed of the Kβ1 and the satellite Kβx, Kβ5 lines. From the measured X-ray yields, it was found that the chemical speciation of samples with Cl concentrations as low as ≈1% is possible by this method. The Cl-Kβ series were also successfully observed in the case of APM samples with particle sizes of 11.0–2.1 μm. The spectra shapes of the NaCl standard samples and an APM sample were slightly different from each other, because of some possible mixing of non-sea salt component in the APM sample.