Application of x-ray fluorescence (XRF) absolute analysis method for silica refractories

X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis is a rapid and precise quantitative analytical method for the determination of major and trace elements in many industries and academics. XRF analytical values are relative due to the use of the calibration curves calculated from measuring the reference standard materials such as Japanese Refractory Reference Materials (JRRM) series with certified values determined by wet chemical analysis. The development of the XRF analytical method from relative to absolute analysis will help much to determine the absolute values of samples from the fields where reference standard samples have not been prepared, and thus can be applied widely in many industries. The implement of the absolute XRF analysis for silica refractories requires high purity reagents and/or reference standard solution for the binary basic calibration curve, and theoretical matrix correction coefficients for the multi-components silica refractories analysis. The reproducibility and repeatability of this method for Al₂O₃ 5 mass% sample were 0.009 and 0.006 mass% in Al₂O₃ and showed better values that those of ICP-AES recognized as an absolute method in JIS R 2212-2, which yielded 0.028 and 0.031 mass%, respectively. The XRF absolute analysis for JRRM 200 series, 201a and 205a does not show a bias but coincides with their certified values. (author)