Activation analysis with charged particles

Activation methods are important because of their sensitivity. The accuracy and precision obtainable with charged-particle activation analysis (CPAA) have been significantly improved; the accuracy has been demonstrated in inter-laboratory and inter-method comparisons. The inherent complexity of CPAA makes it unsuitable for routine work, but the method is valuable for special applications, e.g., certification of reference materials, and for the determination of certain elements. Most applications concern the determination of light elements in metals and semi-conductor materials. After removal of surface layers by chemical etching, the concentrations of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen found by CPAA in some industrial metals, (e.g., aluminium, molybdenum and tungsten) proved to be orders of magnitude lower than expected from the results of other procedures. Other applications are the determination of medium- and high-Z elements, (e.g., calcium, cadmium, thallium and lead) in metals; these elements are very difficult to determine with neutron activation. Environmental powdered materials can be analyzed accurately; because of their low thermal conductivity, they must be irradiated under helium instead of vacuum to avoid volatilization of matrix components.