title: Sample damage during X-ray fluorescence analysis--case study on ammonium salts in atmospheric aerosols.
abstract: Atmospheric aerosols can consist of, amongst others, compounds like NH(4)NO(3) or (NH(4))(2)SO(4). Such components can suffer radiation damage and/or evaporate during EDXRF measurements, providing errors on successively applied analysis. The aim of this work is to investigate the influence of measurements using conventional EDXRF on the volatile compounds and to compare it with the influence of polarized beam EDXRF using secondary targets (and hence indirect irradiation). The effect of different parameters (acquisition time, accelerating voltage, current and medium) on the concentration loss was studied. The measurements performed in vacuum during a long period lead to the highest losses of volatile compounds. The influence of direct irradiation was proved to be larger than the indirect variant.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Environmental Analysis Group, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Antwerpen, Belgium. Katleen.vanmeel@ua.ac.be
authors.forename: Katleen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Van Meel
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Worobiec
authors.forename: Marianne
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stranger
authors.forename: René
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Van Grieken
mesh_terms: D000336:Aerosols / Q000737:chemistry*; D000645:Ammonium Sulfate / Q000032:analysis*; D001272:Atmosphere / Q000737:chemistry*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods; D009566:Nitrates / Q000032:analysis*; D013052:Spectrometry, X-Ray Emission
chemical_list: D000336:Aerosols; D009566:Nitrates; D000645:Ammonium Sulfate; C006568:ammonium nitrate